Art  and  the  Human  Spirit 


A  HANDBOOK  OF  EIGHT  LECTURES 


BY 

EDWARD    HOWARD    QRIGGS 


OF  CHOI 


LOS 


ART  AND 
THE  HUMAN  SPIRIT 


The  Meaning  and  Relations  of  Sculpture^ 
Painting^  Poetry  and  Music 


A  Handbook  of  Eight  Lectures 

By 
EDWARD  HOWARD  GRIGGS 


NEW  YORK 

B.  W.  HUEBSCH 

1908 


COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY 
EDWARD  HOWARD  GRIGGS 


"I  believe  in  God,  Mozart,  and  Beethoven,  and  in  their  disciples  and 
apostles;  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  truth  of  Art — one  and 
indivisible;  I  believe  that  this  art  proceeds  from  God  and  dwells  in  the 
hearts  of  all  enlightened  men;  I  believe  that  whoever  has  revelled  in  the 
glorious  joys  of  this  high  art  must  be  forever  devoted  to  it  and  can  never 
repudiate  it ;  I  believe  that  all  may  become  blessed  through  this  art,  and 
that  therefore  it  is  permitted  to  any  one  to  die  of  hunger  for  its  sake;  I 
believe  that  I  shall  become  most  happy  through  death;  I  believe  that  I 
have  been  on  earth  a  discordant  chord,  that  shall  be  made  harmonious 
and  clear  by  death.  I  believe  in  a  last  judgment,  that  shall  fearfully 
damn  all  those  who  have  dared  on  this  earth  to  make  profit  out  of  this 
chaste  and  holy  art — who  have  disgraced  it  and  dishonored  it  through 
badness  of  heart  and  the  coarse  instincts  of  sensuality;  I  believe  that 
such  men  will  be  condemned  to  hear  their  own  music  through  all  eter- 
nity. I  believe,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  true  disciples  of  pure  art 
will  be  glorified  in  a  divine  atmosphere  of  sun-illumined,  fragrant  con- 
cords, and  united  eternally  with  the  divine  source  of  all  harmony.  And 
may  a  merciful  lot  be  granted ine !  Amen ! ' ' 

— Wagner,  in  "  An  End  in  Paris,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  p.  90. 


2129919 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Note:  Spirit  of  the  Course 7 

1.  The  Expression  and  Interpretation  of  Human  Life  in  Art    .       9 

2.  The  Primitive  Sources  of  Art    .         .         .  .         .         .14 

3.  The  Race,  the  Epoch  and  the  Individual  in  Art       .         .         .19 

4.  The  Meaning  and  Function  of  Sculpture  and  Painting      .         .     24 

5.  The  Meaning  and  Function  of  Music 29 

6.  The  Meaning  and  Function  of  Poetry 35 

7.  Literature  and  Liberal  Culture 40 

8.  Beauty  and  the  Culture  of  the  Spirit 45 

Suggestions  to  Students 50 

Book  List         ....  .  ,51 


THERE  is  evident  in  our  country  to-day  a  great  turning  of  energy 
to  the  higher  interests  of  human  life,  especially  to  the  fine  arts. 
Apparently  some  part  of  the  enthusiasm  and  youthful  power 
that  has  built  so  wonderful  a  material  civilization  is  now  set  free  for 
the  pursuit  of  beauty  and  wisdom.  We  send  our  students  far  and  wide 
to  the  schools  and  galleries  of  the  old  world;  we  build  art  museums  in 
all  our  cities,  and  cultivate  music  with  a  new  earnestness.  Unfortu- 
nately the  noble  promise  in  this  awakening  is  hampered  by  grave  mis- 
conceptions as  to  the  meaning  of  art  in  relation  to  the  human  spirit. 
Widely,  among  high  and  low  alike,  art  is  regarded  as  a  pleasant  adorn- 
ment of  life,  worth  seeking  after  the  serious  business  of  our  existence  is 
fulfilled,  but  quite  dispensable  meantime.  Others — well-meaning  peo- 
ple— hold  art  to  be  justified  only  by  some  obvious  moral  teaching  it 
conveys.  In  reaction  against  this  view  and  as  a  result  of  the  difficult 
technical  problems  art  presents,  many  artists  fall  into  the  equally 
unfortunate  error  of  regarding  art  as  primarily  an  exhibition  of  skill, 
interpreting  "art  for  art's  sake"  to  mean  art  for  technique's  sake. 

There  is  no  hope  of  giving  art  the  place  it  should  occupy  in  our 
culture  until  these  errors  have  been  overcome.  We  must  learn  that 
art  is  serious  business,  that  beauty  is  the  most  useful  thing  we  know, 
and  that  art  is  not  for  adornment's  sake,  or  preaching's  sake,  or  art's 
sake,  but  that  it  is  for  life's  sake. 

The  aim  of  this  course  is,  therefore,  to  consider  as  fully  and  search- 
ingly  as  possible  the  place  and  meaning  of  the  fine  arts  in  relation  to 
the  spirit  of  man.  We  shall  study  first  the  unity  of  the  arts,  their 
expression  and  interpretation  in  common  of  the  universal  elements  of 
human  experience.  Then  the  historic  sources  of  the  arts  and  the  great 
forces  that  determine  the  specific  characteristics  of  a  masterpiec«  will 


be  studied.  The  heart  of  the  course  will  be  an  effort  to  define  the  par- 
ticular meaning  and  function  of  each  of  the  arts,  the  way  in  which  it 
can  express  and  interpret  some  phase  of  the  common  human  life  more 
effectively  than  any  other.  Finally,  the  work  will  close  with  a  study 
of  the  ministry  of  the  arts  to  man's  spirit  and  their  place  in  culture. 

If  art  is  for  life's  sake  for  the  appreciative  student,  even  more  is  it  so 
for  the  creative  artist.  If  often  the  lesser  men  have  lived  to  paint,  or 
carve,  or  write,  or  sing,  the  great  masters  have  ever  found  art  a  way  of 
life,  have  painted,  carved,  written,  sung,  to  live, — that  through  creative 
expression  in  art  they  might  grow  up  into  the  fullness  of  their  own  po- 
tential humanity.  Thus  it  is  necessary  that  every  one  should  be  an 
artist  in  this  high  sense  of  the  word;  and  if  that  is  impossible  in  what 
we  call  the  fine  arts,  it  is  possible  in  the  finest  of  all,  the  one  supreme 
art  of  living.  The  need  is,  not  that  beauty  should  be  added  artificially 
to  daily  life,  but  that  life  itself,  in  work,  relationship  and  environment, 
should  be  made  a  fine  art.  That  this  study  may  help  a  little  to  that 
end  and  so  add  something  of  the  joy  that  comes  from  supreme  beauty, 
redeeming  the  commonplace  detail  of  life  by  clothing  it  with  a  trans- 
figuring atmosphere  and  exalting  the  spirit  to  a  place  where  a  serene 
vision  of  life  in  relation  is  possible,  is  the  hope  with  which  the  work  is 
undertaken. 


I.  THE  EXPRESSION  AND  INTERPRETA- 
TION OF   HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ART 

Art  is  the  adequate  and  harmonious  expression  and  interpretation  of 
some  phase  of  man's  life  in  true  relation  to  the  whole. 
— Edward  Howard  Griggs. 

Purpose  of  the  course. — To  consider  the  whole  meaning  of  the  fine 
arts;  the  relations  they  sustain  to  each  other;  the  sources  from 
which  they  spring;  their  two-fold  relation  to  the  human  spirit, — as  ex- 
pressing and  interpreting  life  and  as  contributing  to  the  higher  culture 
of  man.  The  need  and  value  of  such  study  to-day,  especially  in 
America. 

Popular  superstitions  in  relation  to  art. — Misconceptions  met  on  the 
threshold  of  our  study:  (1)  The  notion  that  art  is  a  dispensable  luxury, 
to  be  cultivated  as  an  adornment  of  life  after  our  serious  business  is 
accomplished.  Prevalence  of  this  error  in  the  mind  of  the  general 
public;  among  those  who  regard  themselves  as  polite  society.  The 
artist's  bitter  protest  against  this  attitude  in  all  epochs:  compare  Car- 
lyle;  Goethe. 

(2)  The  notion  prevailing  in  the  minds  of  many  good  people  that  art 
is  justified  only  by  the  moral  lessons  it  teaches.     Goethe's  view  that  this 
destroys  the  artist's  vocation.    The  ethical  significance  of  true  art 
organically  in  it,  not  tacked  on  in  an  ^Esop's  fable  moral  at  the  end. 

(3)  In  reaction  against  the  second  error,  one  prevailing  in  the  minds 
of  many  artists  below  the  highest  rank:   the  notion  that  art  is  for  the 
sake  merely  of  exhibiting  technical  skill  in  the  mastery  of  difficulties. 
Causes  of  this  error. 

Essential  that  these  three  misconceptions  should  be  corrected  before 
art  can  assume  its  rightful  place  in  relation  to  our  life.  Our  first  ques- 
tions therefore:  What  is  art,  and  what  relation  does  it  sustain  to  the 
spirit  of  man? 

Unity  and  variety  in  art. — Bewildering  diversity  of  works  of  art: 
compare  in  the  same  art;  in  different  arts.  Thus  difficulty  of  gathering 
all  in  a  common  statement.  Yet  the  fact  that  we  may  appreciate  all, 
indicating  a  common  basis.  The  arts,  moreover,  springing  from  one 
historical  source;  while  possible  for  the  most  highly  developed  works 

9 


of  art  in  different  fields  to  produce  the  same  dominant  impression. 
Illustrate  in  the  groups  of  men  who  are  brothers  across  the  centuries. 
The  source  of  this  unity  in  all  art  the  expression  everywhere  of  the 
same  universal  basis  of  human  life. 

The  simple,  generic  elements  of  life  as  always  expressed  in  art  through 
the  medium  of  personality.  Thus  true  art  ever  fresh  and  vital — a  new 
equation  of  old  forces.  Compare  Homer's  Odyssey  and  Stephen  Phil- 
lip's Ulysses. 

Not  all  expression  art.  The  conditioning  principles  of  adequacy  and 
harmony  of  expression  distinguishing  true  art  from  what  fails  to  rise  to 
its  plane.  The  further  principle  that  the  part  must  be  treated  in  sound 
relation  to  the  whole  of  human  life.  Compare  in  the  portrayal  of  moral 
evil.  What  distinguishes  Dante  and  Shakespeare  from  the  vicious  type 
of  novel  in  such  portrayal. 

Interpretation  of  life. — All  expression  involving  as  well  some  measure 
of  interpretation;  that  is,  all  art  inevitably  ideal  as  well  as  real  in  the 
presentation  of  life  and  nature.  Compare  even  in  amateur  photography: 
how  there  is  inevitably  selection  of  material  and  point  of  view.  Com- 
pare in  the  novel  that  attempts  merely  a  realistic  portraiture  of  life. 
How  even  the  selection  of  the  part  of  the  material  out  of  the  whole  and 
the  adoption  of  a  view-point  in  its  treatment,  bringing  certain  elements 
into  the  foreground  and  subordinating  others  in  the  background,  means 
putting  life  and  nature  through  the  transmuting  spectrum  of  the 
artist's  spirit  in  expressing  them. 

Further  elements  of  idealism. — Raising  life  to  a  higher  plane  of  ex- 
pression than  is  usual  in  the  real  world:  compare  the  characters  ot 
Shakespeare;  the  paintings  of  Corot  and  Millet. 

The  tendency  in  art  to  carry  the  laws  of  life  out  full  circle,  thus  giv- 
ing an  ethical  completeness  wanting  in  actual  life. 

The  addition  of  a  unifying  and  interpreting  atmosphere.  Compare 
in  Titian;  Beethoven;  Dante. 

The  definition  of  art. — Summing  up  of  all  the  aspects  developed  in 
the  relation  of  art  to  the  human  spirit:  thus  the  inclusive  definition. 

Hence  the  serious  business  of  art.  The  relation  of  the  beautiful  to 
the  useful.  The  meaning  of  art  in  the  life  of  man. 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

"The  useful  encourages  itself;  for  the  multitude  produce  it,  and  no 
one  can  dispense  with  it:  the  beautiful  must  be  encouraged;  for  few 
can  set  it  forth,  and  many  need  it." 

— Goethe,  Wilhelm  Meister,  translated  by  Carlyle  (A.  C.  McClurg  & 
Co.,  1890),  vol.  2,  p.  129. 

10 


"  I  do  not  object  to  a  dramatic  poet  having  a  moral  influence  in  view ; 
but  when  the  point  is  to  bring  his  subject  clearly  and  effectively  before 
his  audience,  his  moral  purpose  proves  of  little  use,  and  he  needs  much 
more  a  faculty  for  delineation  and  a  familiarity  with  the  stage  to  know 
what  to  do  and  what  to  leave  undone.  If  there  be  a  moral  in  the  sub- 
ject, it  will  appear,  and  the  poet  has  nothing  to  consider  but  the  effective 
and  artistic  treatment  of  his  subject.  If  the  poet  has  as  high  a  soul  as 
Sophocles,  his  influence  will  always  be  moral,  let  him  do  what  he  will." 

— Goethe,  Conversations  with  Eckermann  and  Soret,  p.  228. 

"The  praiseworthy  object  of  pursuing  everywhere  moral  good  as  the 
supreme  aim,  which  has  already  brought  forth  in  art  so  much  medioc- 
rity, has  caused  also  in  theory  a  similar  prejudice.  To  assign  to  the 
fine  arts  a  really  elevated  position,  to  conciliate  for  them  the  favour  of 
the  State,  the  veneration  of  all  men,  they  are  pushed  beyond  their  true 
domain,  and  a  vocation  is  imposed  upon  them  contrary  to  their  nature. 
It  is  supposed  that  a  great  service  is  awarded  them  by  substituting  for  a 
frivolous  aim, — that  of  charming — a  moral  aim ;  and  their  influence  upon 
morality,  which  is  so  apparent,  necessarily  militates  in  favour  of  this 
pretension." 

— Schiller,  Essays  JSsthetical  and  Philosophical,  pp.  361,  362. 

"  Just  as  the  sun  cannot  shed  its  light  but  to  the  eye  that  sees  it,  nor 
music  sound  but  to  the  hearing  ear,  so  the  value  of  all  masterly  work  in 
art  and  science  is  conditioned  by  the  kinship  and  capacity  of  the  mind 
to  which  it  speaks.  It  is  only  such  a  mind  as  this  that  possesses  the 
magic  word  to  stir  and  call  forth  the  spirits  that  lie  hidden  in  great  work. 
To  the  ordinary  mind  a  masterpiece  is  a  sealed  cabinet  of  mystery, — an 
unfamiliar  musical  instrument  from  which  the  player,  however  much  he 
may  flatter  himself,  can  draw  none  but  confused  tones.  How  different 
a  painting  looks  when  seen  in  a  good  light,  instead  of  in  some  dark  cor- 
ner! Just  in  the  same  way,  the  impression  made  by  a  masterpiece  varies 
with  the  capacity  of  the  mind  to  understand  it." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  94. 

"  From  the  combined  effort  of  the  two  schools  of  criticism,  guardians 
of  public  tranquillity,  there  results  a  salutary  reaction.  This  reaction 
has  already  produced  some  specimens  of  poets, — steady,  well-bred, 
prudent,  whose  style  always  keeps  good  hours;  who  never  indulge  in 
an  outing  with  those  mad  creatures,  Ideas;  who  are  never  met  at  the 
corner  of  a  wood,  solus  cum  sold,  with  Reverie,  that  gypsy  girl ;  who  are 
incapable  of  having  relations  either  with  Imagination,  dangerous  vaga- 
bond, or  with  the  bacchante  Inspiration,  or  with<the  grisette  Fancy; 
who  have  never  in  their  lives  given  a  kiss  to  that  beggarly  chit,  the  Muse; 
who  never  sleep  away  from  home,  and  who  are  honored  with  the  esteem 
of  their  door-keeper,  Nicholas  Boileau.  If  Polyhymnia  goes  by  with 
her  hair  floating  a  little,  what  a  scandal!  Quick!  they  call  the  hair- 
dresser. M.  de  la  Harpe  comes  hastily.  These  two  sister  schools  of 
criticism,  that  of  the  doctrinaire  and  that  of  the  sacristan,  undertake  to 
educate.  They  bring  up  little  writers.  They  keep  a  place  to  wean 
them, — a  boarding-school  for  juvenile  reputations." 

— Victor  Hugo,  William  Shakespeare,  pp.  208,  209. 

11 


"  The  passions,  whether  violent  or  not,  must  never  be  carried  in  their 
expression  to  the  verge  of  disgust,  and  music,  even  in  the  most  awful 
situations,  must  not  offend  the  ear,  but  always  please." 

— Mozart,  in  Kerst,  Mozart:  The  Man  and  the  Artist,  pp.  34,  35. 

"  He  was  a  good  man  and  on  that  very  account,  a  great  man.  For 
when  a  good  man  is  gifted  with  talent,  he  always  works  morally  for  the 
salvation  of  the  world,  as  poet,  philosopher,  artist,  or  in  whatever  way 
it  may  be." 

— Goethe,  Conversations  with  Eckermann  and  Soret,  p.  364. 

"The  historical  painter  also  must  take  good  care,  if  he  would  not  pro- 
duce a  caricature,  even  in  subjects  of  an  action  moved  by  passion,  not  to 
give  every  one  of  his  figures  the  sharply  imprinted  expression  -of  an  emo- 
tion. Thus,  Orcagna,  in  his  Last  Judgment  (in  the  Campo  santo  at 
Pisa),  represents  with  fearful  truthfulness,  and  in  a  most  startling  man- 
ner, on  the  side  of  the  damned,  terrified  surprise,  horror,  lamentation 
and  despair;  but  for  all  that  it  would  be  but  a  crowd  of  people  mak- 
ing faces  if  the  artist  did  not  contrast  it  with  the  uniformly  tranquil, 
radiant  joy  on  the  faces  of  the  saved,  and  the  solemn  gravity  of  the  patri- 
archs and  prophets.  In  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Last  Supper  is  placed 
by  the  side  of  the  .violent  gesticulations  and  excited  looks  of  some  of  the 
apostles,  in  well-calculated  contrasting  relief,  the  composed  demeanor 
of  others,  especially  of  the  one  sitting  at  the  right  of  the  beholder  at  the 
end  of  the  table,  but  particularly  the  divinely  mild  gravity  and  the  sor- 
rowful resignation  of  the  principal  figure  in  the  middle.  Even  in  the 
most  tumultuous  of  all  historical  pictures,  the  celebrated  Pompeian 
mosaic  picture  of  Alexander's  battle,  the  universal  horror  at  the  fall  of 
the  commander-in-chief  is  completely  portrayed  only  in  some  figures." 

— Ambros,  The  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry,  pp.  56,  57. 

"Beauty  results  from  the  harmony  between  spirit  and  sense;  it  ad- 
dresses all  the  faculties  of  man,  and  can  only  be  appreciated  if  a  man 
employs  fully  all  his  strength.  He  must  bring  to  it  an  open  sense,  a 
broad  heart,  a  spirit  full  of  freshness.  All  a  man's  nature  must  be  on 
the  alert,  and  this  is  not  the  case  with  those  divided  by  abstraction,  nar- 
rowed by  formulas,  enervated  by  application." 

— Schiller,  Essays  Msthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  330. 

"A  masterpiece  exists  once  for  all.  The  first  poet  who  arrives,  arrives 
at  the  summit.  You  shall  ascend  after  him,  as  high,  not  higher.  Ah ! 
Your  name  is  Dante?  Very  well;  but  he  who  sits  yonder  is  named 
Homer!" 

— Victor  Hugo,  William  Shakespeare,  p.  101. 

"The  unpoetical  lover  of  art,  ensconced  in  his  burgess-like  comfort,  is 
apt  to  take  offence  at  any  part  of  a  poetical  work  which  entails  trouble 
on  him,  such  as  the  solution,  colouring  or  concealment  of  a  problem. 
The  somnolent  reader  wants  everything  to  pursue  its  natural  course, 
little  imagining  in  his  obstinate  conceit  how  the  extraordinary  may  also 
be  natural." 

— Goethe,  Travels  in  Italy,  p.  466. 

12 


TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  common  and  universal  in  the  subject-matter  of  the  fine 

arts? 

2.  Compare  Homer's  Odyssey  and  the  Ulysses  of  Stephen  Phillips  as 

artistic  treatments  of  the  same  theme. 

3.  Can  you  discover  a  musical  composition  and  a  work  in  painting 

that  produce  the  same  dominant  impression  with  the  Agamemnon 
Trilogy  of  ^Eschylus? 

4.  Can  you  find  a  type  of  poetry  and  of  painting  akin  in  impression  to 

the  music  of  Chopin? 

5.  What  makes  possible  our  common  appreciation  of  works  of  art  in 

widely  different  fields  and  coming  from  remotely  separated  races 
and  epochs? 

6.  Explain  how  all  the  characters  of  Shakespeare  can  speak  such 

beautiful  poetry,  and  yet  Shakespeare  be  regarded  as  the  great 
realist  in  the  portrayal  of  life. 

7.  What  relation  do  the  paintings  of  Corot  sustain  to  Nature? 

8.  How  far  may  moral  disease  wisely  be  portrayed  in  art? 

9.  Show  what  is  necessary  to  make  expression  truly  artistic. 
10.  Formulate  your  own  definition  of  art. 


REFERENCES 

NOTE:  See  Book  List,  pp.  51-57,  for  publisher  and  place  and  date 
of  publication  of  all  books  referred  to. 

Ambros,  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry.  Carpenter,  Angels'  Wings. 
Corson,  Aims  of  Literary  Study.  Crawshaw,  Literary  Interpretation  of 
Life.  Emerson,  Art  (in  Essays,  first  series,  pp.  325-343);  Art  (in 
Society  and  Solitude,  pp.  39-59).  Hand,  ^Esthetics  of  Musical  Art.  Hugo, 
William  Shakespeare.  Knight,  The  Philosophy  of  the  Beautiful.  Lanier, 
Music  and  Poetry.  Leighton,  Addresses.  Lewes,  Principles  of  Success  in 
Literature.  Mabie,  Short  Studies  in  Literature.  Parry,  The  Evolution  of 
the  Art  of  Music.  Partridge,  Art  for  America.  Rayrilond,  Art  in  Theory; 
Essentials  of  ^Esthetics.  Ruskin,  Lectures  on  Art;  Modern  Painters;  The 
Two  Paths.  Schiller,  Essays.  Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature. 
Shairp,  Aspects  of  Poetry.  Stedman,  Naiare  and  Elements  of  Poetry. 
Tolstoy,  What  is  Art  ?  Van  Dyke,  How  to  Judge  of  a  Picture;  Principles 
of  Art.  Wagner,  Art  Life  and  Theories  of.  Wilde,  The  Critic  as  Artist. 


II.  THE  PRIMITIVE  SOURCES  OF  ART 

"  The  secret,  mysterious  relations  of  the  human  heart  to  the  strange 
nature  around  it,  have  not  yet  come  to  an  end.  In  its  eloquent  silence, 
this  latter  still  speaks  to  the  heart  just  as  it  did  a  thousand  years  ago; 
and  what  was  told  in  the  very  gray  of  antiquity  is  understood  to-day  as 
easily  as  then.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  the  legend  of  nature  ever  re- 
mains the  inexhaustible  resource  of  the  poet  in  his  intercourse  with  his 
people." 

— Wagner,  in  "Der  Freischiitz  in  Paris,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  p.  99. 

Evolution  of  the  arts. — The  primitive  hymns  sung  in  honor  of  a  God 
and  accompanied  by  interpretative  dancing.  How  the  various  fine  arts 
are  differentiated  from  this  historic  basis.  The  same  law  of  evolution 
applying  to  all  expressions  of  life  evident  in  the  arts.  A  generic  unity 
in  the  primitive  basis,  sometimes  wanting  in  the  later  differentiated 
forms. 

The  original  inspiration  of  art. — Significance  in  the  fact  that  all  art 
springs  first  from  religion.  Profound  seriousness  of  early  art.  This 
religious  earnestness  persisting  in  all  great  art.  Thus  deep  meaning  in 
the  primitive  sources  from  which  art  springs. 

The  character  of  early  art. — Antecedent  to  written  literature  a  great 
storehouse  of  popular  thought,  feeling  and  imagination  which  we  call 
mythology.  The  process  by  which  this  is  developed,  accumulated  and 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation.  Value  of  the  product  as 
a  condensed  and  refined  result  of  long  ages  of  human  life.  Compare  in 
value  with  great  literary  masterpieces  produced  by  individual  geniuses. 

Vitality  of  mythology,  due  to  the  closeness  of  primitive  man  to 
Nature  and  the  simple  tilings  of  human  life.  Evidence  in  the  spon- 
taneous metaphorical  character  of  all  early  language:  Illustrations. 

The  truth  in  mythology,  due  to  a  sound  reaction  on  the  world.  Con- 
trast the  truth  of  incident  with  the  truth  of  character.  Aristotle's  view 
of  poetry  as  truer  than  history.  The  true  and  the  false  fairy-tale:  a 
mere  jumble  of  adventure  contrasted  with  a  portrayal  of  character 
naturally  unfolding  in  relation  to  circumstance  and  law. 

Universality  of  mythology.  The  few,  great,  simple  elements  that 
make  up  human  life  in  all  times  and  places.  Tendency  to  hark  back 
to  these  from  the  conventions  and  artificialities  of  civilization.  Con- 
stant expression  of  these  in  primitive  art:  compare  the  Brunhild  story. 

14 


Thus  ethical  depth  in  all  the  gathered-up  result  of  early  life.  Simple 
but  clear  recognition  of  the  great  laws  of  life. 

Natural  but  inevitable  art  in  the  great  expressions  of  early  life. 
Characteristics  of  that  art  in  comparison  with  the  form  of  later  master- 
pieces. 

The  ethical  value  of  mythology. — The  moral  plane  of  primitive  life 
in  comparison  with  later  civilization.  Thus  elements  in  mythology 
below  the  level  of  our  ethical  standards  of  to-day.  Yet  moral  develop- 
ment proceeding  not  only  from  the  lower  to  the  higher,  but  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex.  Compare  the  complication  of  ethical  situations 
and  standards  in  our  life.  Difficulty  in  distinguishing  good  and  evil. 
Expression  of  this  in  Ibsen  and  Goethe.  Contrasting  simplicity  of 
primitive  mythology:  its  simple  and  clear  opposition  of  good  and  evil. 
Usual  representation  of  good  as  conquering.  Illustrations  in  both 
Greek  and  northern  legends.  Thus  mythology  presenting  the  basal 
moral  principles  that  should  be  clearly  recognized  before  the  liter- 
ature is  studied  that  portrays  the  ethical  subtleties  and  complications 
of  modern  life. 

A  further  ethical  element  in  primitive  mythology:  good  not  always 
conquering;  but  when  defeated,  going  down  with  colors  flying,  thus 
making  of  defeat  the  noblest  of  moral  victories.  Compare  in  the 
Prometheus  legend;  the  story  of  Beowulf. 

The  relation  of  mythology  to  later  art. — The  need  of  the  late  artist 
to  saturate  himself  in  the  springs  of  the  race  life:  compare  in  Tennyson 
and  Wagner.  The  use  of  mythology  and  religion  in  Greek  sculpture; 
Renaissance  painting;  poetry;  music. 

Important  types  of  primitive  material. — The  three  sources  of  early 
material  drawn  from  most  largely  by  European  art:  (1)  Hebraic 
stories;  (2)  Greek  and  Latin  mythology;  (3)  Norse  legends.  The  com- 
plementary character  of  these  three  bodies  of  material.  The  Hebraic 
stories  as  presenting  the  dee'pest  recognition  of  moral  law  and  purpose. 
Greek  mythology  as  beautiful  and  artistic.  Norse  stories  as  most 
deeply  human  and  at  the  same  time  the  ethnic  background  from  which 
our  art  springs. 

Thus  the  value  of  primitive  mythology  and  religion:  (1)  as  sources  of 
later  art;  (2)  as  inspiration  of  art  to-day;  (3)  as  valuable  permanently 
in  education. 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Art  rests  upon  a  kind  of  religious  sense:  it  is  deeply  and  ineradicably 
in  earnest.  Thus  it  is  that  Art  so  willingly  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
Religion." 

— Goethe,  Maxims  and  Reflections,  p.  174. 

15 


"The  essence  of  the  Scandinavian,  as  indeed  of  all  pagan  mythologies, 
we  found  to  be  recognition  of  the  divineness  of  nature;  sincere  commun- 
ion of  man  with  the  mysterious  invisible  powers  visibly  seen  at  work 
in  the  world  round  him.  This,  I  should  say,  is  more  sincerely  done  in 
the  Scandinavian  than  in  any  mythology  I  know.  Sincerity  is  the 
great  character  of  it.  Superior  sincerity  (far  superior)  consoles  us  for 
the  total  want  of  old  Grecian  grace.  Sincerity,  I  think,  is  better  than 
grace.  I  feel  that  these  old  northmen  were  looking  into  nature  with 
open  eye  and  soul  most  earnest,  honest;  childlike,  and  yet  manlike;  with 
a  great-hearted  simplicity  and  depth  and  freshness,  in  a  true,  loving,  ad- 
miring, unf earing  way." 

— Carlyle,  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  p.  30. 

"When  imagination  incessantly  escapes  from  reality,  and  does  not 
abandon  the  simplicity  of  nature  in  its  wanderings:  then  and  then  only 
the  mind  and  the  senses,  the  receptive  force  and  the  plastic  force,  are 
developed  in  that  happy  equilibrium  which  is  the  soul  of  the  beautiful 
and  the  condition  of  humanity." 

— Schiller,  Essays  Msthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  106. 

"The  law  of  simplicity  and  naivety  holds  good  of  all  fine  art;  for  it  is 
quite  possible  to  be  at  once  simple  and  sublime." 
— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  31. 

"  To  speak  out  once  for  all,  man  only  plays  when  in  the  full  meaning 
of  the  word  he  is  a  man,  and  he  is  only  completely  a  man  when  he  plays." 
— Schiller,  Essays  Msthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  71. 

"Ah! — if  you  would  and  could  but  hear  and  see  our  true  Freischiitz, — 
you  might  feel  the  anxiety  that  now  oppresses  me,  in  the  form  of  a 
friendly  appreciation  on  your  own  part  of  the  peculiarity  of  that  spirit- 
ual life,  which  belongs  to  the  German  nation  as  a  birthright ;  you  would 
look  kindly  upon  the  silent  attraction  that  draws  the  German  away 
from  the  life  of  his  large  cities, — wretched  and  clumsily  imitative  of 
foreign  influences,  as  it  is, — and  takes  him  back  to  nature ;  attracts  him 
to  the  solitude  of  the  forests,  that  he  may  there  re-awaken  those  emotions 
for  which  your  language  has  not  even  a  word, — but  which  those  mystic, 
clear  tones  of  our  Weber  explain  to  us  as  thoroughly  as  your  exquisite 
decorations  and  enervating  music  must  make  them  lifeless  and  irrecog- 
nizable  for  you." 

— Wagner,  in  "Der  Freischutz  in  Paris,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  pp. 
106,  107. 

"You  remember  the  fancy  of  Plato's,  of  a  man  who  had  grown  to 
maturity  in  some  dark  distance,  and  was  brought  on  a  sudden  into  the 
upper  air  to  see  the  sun  rise.  What  would  his  wonder  be,  his  rapt  as- 
tonishment at  the  sight  we  daily  witness  with  indifference!  With  the 
free  open  sense  of  a  child,  yet  with  the  ripe  faculty  of  a  man,  his  whole 
heart  would  be  kindled  by  that  sight,  he  would  discern  it  well  to  be  god- 
like, his  soul  would  fall  down  in  worship  before  it.  Now,  just  such  a 
childlike  greatness  was  in  the  primitive  nations.  The  first  pagan 
thinker  among  rude  men,  the  first  man  that  began  to  think,  was  pre- 
16 


cisely  this  child-man  of  Plato's.  Simple,  open  as  a  child,  yet  with  the 
depth  and  strength  of  a  man.  Nature  had  as  yet  no  name  to  him;  he 
had  not  yet  united  under  a  name  the  infinite  variety  of  sights,  sounds, 
shapes  and  motions,  which  we  now  collectively  name  universe,  nature, 
or  the  like, — and  so  with  a  name  dismiss  it  from  us.  To  the  wild  deep- 
hearted  man  all  was  yet  new,  not  veiled  under  names  or  formulas;  it 
stood  naked,  flashing-in  on  him  there,  beautiful,  awful,  unspeakable. 
Nature  was  to  this  man,  what  to  the  thinker  and  prophet  it  forever  is, 
preter-natural.  This  green  flowery  rock-built  earth,  the  trees,  the  moun- 
tains, rivers,  many-sounding  seas; — that  great  deep  sea  of  azure  that 
swims  overhead ;  the  wind  sweeping  through  it ;  the  black  cloud  fashion- 
ing itself  together,  now  pouring  out  fire,  now  hail  and  rain;  what  is  it? 
Ay,  what?  At  bottom  we  do  not  yet  know;  we  can  never  know  at  all. 
It  is  not  by  our  superior  insight  that  we  escape  the  difficulty ;  it  is  by  our 
superior  levity,  our  inattention,  our  want  of  insight.  It  is  by  not  think- 
ing that  we  cease  to  wonder  at  it.  Hardened  round  us,  encasing  wholly 
every  notion  we  form,  is  a  wrappage  of  traditions,  hearsays ;  mere  words. 
We  call  that  fire  of  the  black  thunder  cloud  "electricity,"  and  lecture 
learnedly  about  it,  and  grind  the  like  of  it  out  of  glass  and  silk;  but  what 
is  it?  What  made  it?  Whence  comes  it?  Whither  goes  it?  Science 
has  done  much  for  us;  but  it  is  a  poor  science  that  would  hide  from  us 
the  great  deep  sacred  infinitude  of  Nescience,  whither  we  can  never 
penetrate,  on  which  all  science  swims  as  a  mere  superficial  film.  This 
world,  after  all  our  science  and  sciences,  is  still  a  miracle ;  wonderful,  in- 
scrutable, magical  and  more,  to  whosoever  will  think  of  it." 
— Carlyle,  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  pp.  7,  8. 


TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  Compare,  in  ethical  vitality  and  artistic  beauty,  primitive  mythol- 

ogy and  later  masterpieces. 

2.  To  what  extent  do  the  different  arts  depend  upon  primitive  mythol- 

ogy and  religion  as  sources  for  their  material? 

3.  What  is  the  relative  value,  for  the  understanding  of  European  art, 

of  Greek  and  Norse  mythology? 

4.  Compare,  in  ethical  vitality  and  artistic  beauty,  Tennyson's  Passing 

of  Arthur  and  the  concluding  portion  of  Beowulf. 

5.  Why  is  the  late  artist  led  so  frequently  to  saturate  himself  with  the 

expressions  of  early  life? 

6.  What  is  the  relative  ethical  value  of  Hebrew  stories  and  Norse 

myths? 

7.  From  what  early  sources  does  Renaissance  painting  chiefly  draw? 

8.  Compare  the  ethical  plane  in  Greek  and  Norse  mythology  with  that 

achieved  in  later  civilization. 

9.  From  what  historic  sources  does  English  poetry  chiefly  draw? 

10.  What  is  the  value  of  primitive  mythology  for  the  education  of 
children? 

17 


REFERENCES 

Anderson,  Norse  Mythology;  The  Younger-  Edda.  Brown,  The  Fine 
Arts.  Bulfinch,  The  Age  of  Chivalry;  The  Age  of  Fable.  Carlyle,  The 
Hero  as  Divinity.  Cox,  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Comparative 
Mythology;  The  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations.  Donaldson,  Theatre  of 
the  Greeks.  Fairbanks,  The  Mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome.  Gayley, 
Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature.  Goldziher,  Mythology  among  the 
Hebrews.  Grosse,  The  Beginnings  of  Art.  Guerber,  Myths  of  Greece 
and  Rome;  Myths  of  Northern  Lands.  Gummere,  The  Beginnings  of 
Poetry;  Handbook  of  Poetics.  Mabie,  Short  Studies  in  Literature. 
Malory,  Le  Morte  Darthur.  Parry,  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music. 
Posnett,  Comparative  Literature.  Shairp,  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Na- 
ture. Wagner,  Art  Life  and  Theories  of. 


18 


III.  THE  RACE,  THE  EPOCH  AND  THE 
INDIVIDUAL  IN  ART 

"We  live  in  this  world  only  that  we  may  go  onward  without  ceasing,  a 
peculiar  help  in  this  direction  being  that  one  enlightens  the  other  by 
communicating  his  ideas;  in  the  sciences  and  fine  arts  there  is  always 
more  to  learn." 

— Mozart,  in  Kerst,  Mozart:  The  Man  and  the  Artist,  p.  89. 

Determining  forces  behind  art. — So  far  we  have  considered  the  great 
common  sources  of  art;  now  to  turn  to  the  causes  giving  unique  char- 
acteristics to  each  work  of  art. 

The  personal  element. — In  art  the  great  common  basis  of  human  life 
expressed  only  through  the  medium  of  personality;  thus  the  character 
and  experience  of  the  artist  always  revealed  in  the  work,  and  molding 
it.  Compare  Mozart  and  Beethoven  in  music;  Fra  Angelico  and  Fra 
Lippo  Lippi  in  painting. 

Compare  Tennyson's  Crossing  the  Bar  and  Browning's  Epilogue  to 
Asolando.  Differences  in  imagery,  music,  type  of  thought  and  feeling, 
general  view  of  life.  Yet  these  two  poems  coming  from  the  same  time 
and  race.  Complete  revelation  of  Tennyson  and  Browning  in  these 
fragments. 

Relation  of  the  material  given  in  biography  to  the  self-confession  in 
art.  Compare  the  revelation  of  Andrea  del  Sarto  in  the  traditional 
biography  and  in  his  painting.  The  expression  of  Chopin's  personality 
and  experience  in  his  music.  Revelation  of  the  artist  even  when  the 
work  is  most  objective  and  dramatic  in  character.  Compare  how  it  is 
possible  to  find  Shakespeare  behind  his  dramas. 

The  development  of  the  artist  revealed  where  w"brks  come  from  dif- 
ferent periods  of  his  life.  Illustrations  in  Goethe,  Wagner,  Shakespeare ; 
in  the  early  and  late  Pieta  of  Michael  Angelo. 

The  epoch. — The  forces  of  the  time  always  molding  the  spirit  of  the 
individual  artist.  The  epoch  a  complex  of  many  forces,  yet  out  of 
them  a  true  "time-spirit"  created.  Effect  of  internal  changes  in  a 
land;  of  the  reception  of  foreign  stimulus;  of  the  natural  growth  and 
decay  of  the  forces  of  life. 

19 


Different  types  of  epoch:  in  production  and  preparation,  faith  and 
doubt,  creation  and  criticism.  The  artist  inevitably  influenced  by  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  whether  conscious  of  the  fact  or  not.  The  two  con- 
trasting types  of  relation  the  artist  may  sustain  to  his  time.  Compare 
Emerson  in  relation  to  America's  civilization;  Fra  Angelico  as  an 
expression  of  the  Renaissance.  So  compare  Dante  as  a  voice  of  the 
middle  ages;  Leonardo  da  Vinci  in  relation  to  the  Renaissance.  The 
common  spirit  in  the  Elizabethan  dramatists.  Wagner's  operas  as  an 
embodiment  of  modern  life.  Significance  of  the  two  dominant  motives 
in  modern  painting. 

Possible  further  to  trace  the  development  of  an  epoch  through  the 
art  in  which  it  is  expressed.  The  half-circle  through  which  every  pro- 
ductive epoch  tends  to  pass.  This  due  to  the  birth,  maturing  and 
decay  of  the  forces  influencing  life.  Contrasting  tendencies  in  the 
artists  appearing  on  the  upward  and  on  the  downward  slope.  Illustra- 
tions in  Elizabethan  drama  and  Renaissance  painting. 

The  race. — The  epoch  but  a  moment  in  the  life  of  a  people.  As  the 
time-spirit  finds  varying  expression  in  the  different  artists  in  which  it  is 
clothed,  so  the  deeper,  organic  life  of  a  race  as  beneath  all  the  epochs 
characterizing  its  unfolding.  Evidence  in  the  fact  that  each  race  is 
apt  to  find  its  highest  expression  in  one  art.  Compare  sculpture  in 
Greece;  painting  in  Italy;  music  in  Germany;  the  drama  in  England. 
Similarly  every  expression  of  a  race  revealing  its  spirit.  Compare  the 
coloring  in  Dutch  and  Italian  painting;  nature-imagery  in  English  and 
Italian  poetry. 

Possible  also  to  trace  the  development  of  a  race  through  its  artistic 
expression.  The  life  of  a  race  as  comparable  to  a  great  on-flowing 
stream  with  rise  and  fall,  ever  deepening  and  enlarging  as  the  race 
develops.  Compare  in  the  development  of  English  literature.  Ele- 
ments which  persist  under  all  the  changes.  Compare  Tennyson's  Pass- 
ing of  Arthur  and  the  closing  portion  of  Beowulf. 

Thus  the  least  fragment  of  art  embodying  the  spirit  of  the  artist,  the 
deeper  life  of  the  epoch,  the  still  more  fundamental  characteristics  of 
the  race,  while  beneath  all  are  the  great,  universal  tendencies  of 
humanity. 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

"  The  most  profound  erudition  is  no  more  akin  to  genius  than  a  collec- 
tion of  dried  plants  is  like  Nature,  with  its  constant  flow  of  new  life,  ever 
fresh,  ever  young,  ever  changing.  There  are  no  two  things  more  op- 
posed than  the  childish  naivety  of  an  ancient  author  and  the  learning  of 
his  commentator." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  52. 

20 


"  At  a  distance  we  only  hear  of  the  first  artists,  and  then  we  are  often 
contented  with  names  only ;  but  when  we  draw  nearer  to  this  starry  sky, 
and  the  luminaries  of  the  second  and  third  magnitude  also  begin  to 
twinkle,  each  one  coming  forward  and  occupying  his  proper  place  in  the 
whole  constellation,  then  the  world  becomes  wide,  and  art  becomes 
rich." 

— Goethe,  Travels  in  Italy,  p.  36. 

"I  carry  my  thoughts  about  me  for  a  long  time,  often  a  very  long  time, 
before  I  write  them  down;  meanwhile  my  memory  is  so  faithful  that  I 
am  sure  never  to  forget,  not  even  in  years,  a  theme  that  has  once  oc- 
curred to  me.  I  change  many  things,  discard,  and  try  again  until  I  am 
satisfied.  Then,  however,  there  begins  in  my  head  the  development  in 
every  direction,  and,  inasmuch  as  I  know  exactly  what  I  want,  the  fun- 
damental idea  never  deserts  me, — it  arises  before  me,  grows, — I  see  and 
hear  the  picture  in  all  its  extent  and  dimensions  stand  before  my  mind 
like  a  cast,  and  there  remains  for  me  nothing  but  the  labor  of  writing  it 
down,  which  is  quickly  accomplished  when  I  have  the  time,  for  I  some- 
times take  up  other  work,  but  never  to  the  confusion  of  one  with  the 
other.  You  will  ask  me  where  I  get  my  ideas.  That  I  can  not  tell  you 
with  certainty;  they  come  unsummoned,  directly,  indirectly, — I  could 
seize  them  with  my  hands, — out  in  the  open  air;  in  the  woods;  while 
walking;  in  the  silence  of  the  nights;  early  in  the  morning;  incited  by 
moods,  which  are  translated  by  the  poet  into  words,  by  me  into  tones 
that  sound,  and  roar  and  storm  about  me  until  I  have  set  them  down  in 
notes." 

— Beethoven,  in  Kerst,  Beethoven:  The  Man  and  the  Artist,  p.  29. 

"Art  has  to  leave  reality,  it  has  to  raise  itself  boldly  above  necessity 
and  neediness;  for  art  is  the  daughter  of  freedom,  and  it  requires  its 
prescriptions  and  rules  to  be  furnished  by  the  necessity  of  spirits  and 
not  by  that  of  matter.  But  in  our  day  it  is  necessity,  neediness,  that 
prevails,  and  bends  a  degraded  humanity  under  its  iron  yoke.  Utility 
is  the  great  idol  of  the  time,  to  which  all  powers  do  homage  and  all  sub- 
jects are  subservient.  In  this  great  balance  of  utility,  the  spiritual 
service  of  art  has  no  weighjt,  and,  deprived  of  all  encouragement,  it 
vanishes  from  the  noisy  Vanity  Fair  of  our  time.  The  very  spirit  of 
philosophical  inquiry  itself  robs  the  imagination  of  one  promise  after 
another,  and  the  frontiers  of  art  are  narrowed,  in  proportion  as  the  limits 
of  science  are  enlarged." 

— Schiller,  Essays  dZsthetical  and  Philosophical,  pp.  27,  28. 

"People  always  fancy  that  we  must  become  old^to  become  wise;  but, 
in  truth,  as  years  advance,  it  is  hard  to  keep  ourselves  as  wise  as  we  were. 
Man  becomes,  indeed,  in  the  different  stages  of  his  life,  a  different  being; 
but  he  cannot  say  that  he  is  a  better  one,  and,  in  certain  matters,  he  is 
as  likely  to  be  right  in  his  twentieth,  as  in  his  sixtieth  year. 

"  We  see  the  world  one  way  from  a  plain,  another  way  from  the  heights 
of  a  promontory,  another  from  the  glacier  fields  of  the  primary  moun- 
tains. We  see,  from  one  of  these  points,  a  larger  piece  of  the  world  than 
from  the  other;  but  that  is  all,  and  we  cannot  say  that  we  see  more 
truly  from  any  one  than  from  the  rest.  When  a  writer  leaves  monu- 

21 


ments  on  the  different  steps  of  his  life,  it  is  chiefly  important  that  he 
should  have  an  innate  foundation  and  goodwill ;  that  he  should,  at  each 
step,  have  seen  and  felt  clearly,  and  that,  without  any  secondary  aims, 
he  should  have  said  distinctly  and  truly  what  has  passed  in  his  mind. 
Then  will  his  writings,  if  they  were  right  at  the  step  where  they  origi- 
nated, remain  always  right,  however  the  writer  may  develop  or  alter 
himself  in  after  times." 

— Goethe,  Conversations  with  Eckermann  and  Soret,  p.  512. 

"That  which  distinguishes  genius,  and  should  be  the  standard  for 
judging  it,  is  the  height  to  which  it  is  able  to  soar  when  it  is  in  the  proper 
mood  and  finds  a  fitting  occasion — a  height  always  out  of  the  reach  of 
ordinary  talent." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  88. 

"It  seems  as  though  purely  human  feeling,  grown  stronger  by  its  very 
repression  on  the  side  of  conventional  civilization,  had  sought  out  a 
means  of  bringing  into  use  some  laws  of  language  peculiar  to  itself,  by 
means  of  which  it  could  express  itself  intelligibly,  freed  from  the  tram- 
mels of  logical  rules  of  thought.  The  extraordinary  popularity  of  music 
in  our  age,  the  ever-increasing  participation  (extending  through  all 
classes  of  society)  in  the  production  of  music  of  the  deepest  character, 
the  growing  desire  to  make  of  musical  culture  a  necessary  part  of  every 
education, — all  these  things  which  are  certainly  obvious  and  undeni- 
able, distinctly  prove  the  justice  of  the  assumption  that  a  deep-rooted 
and  earnest  need  of  humanity  finds  expression  in  modern  musical  devel- 
opment; and  that  music,  unintelligible  as  its  language  is  when  tried 
by  the  laws  of  logic,  must  bear  within  it  a  more  convincing  means  of 
making  itself  understood,  than  even  those  laws  contain." 

— Wagner,  in  "The  Music  of  the  Future,"  Art  Life  and  Theories, 
p.  159. 

TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  different  types  of  relationship  may  artists  sustain  to  the  world 

in  which  they  live? 

2.  Show  how  Tennyson  and  Browning  are  revealed  respectively  in 

Crossing  the  Bar  and  the  Epilogue  to  Asolando. 

3.  Compare  Michael  Angelo's  two  interpretations  of  the  same  theme 

at  opposite  ends  of  his  artistic  career:  the  Pieta  of  St.  Peter's  in 
Rome,  and  the  Pieta  of  the  Cathedral  in  Florence. 

4.  Compare  English  and  Italian  poetry  in  nature-imagery. 

5.  What  relation  does  landscape  painting  sustain  to  the  spirit  of  our 

time? 

6.  In  what  ways  are  the  tendencies  of  modern  civilization  expressed 

in  Wagner's  operas? 

7.  Through  what  type  of  movement  does  a  creative  period  tend  to 

pass,  and  why? 

22 


8.  What  relation  does  sculpture  sustain  to  the  other  arts  in  Greece? 

9.  What  makes  the  Elizabethan  drama  the  best  expression  of  Anglo- 

Saxon  genius? 

10.  Show  how  the  development  of  a  race  may  be  traced  through  its 

artistic  expressions. 

11.  Show  the   common  racial  tendencies  in  Tennyson's  Passing  of 

Arthur  and  the  closing  portion  of  Beowulf. 


REFERENCES 

Bascom,  Philosophy  of  English  Literature.  Carlyle,  The  Hero  as 
Divinity.  Carpenter,  Angels'  Wings.  Crawshaw,  Literary  Interpretation 
of  Life.  Engel,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  National  Music.  Goethe, 
Conversations  with  Eckermann;  Travels  in  Italy.  Hugo,  William  Shakes- 
peare. Kerst,  Beethoven;  Mozart.  Lanier,  Music  and  Poetry.  Leighton, 
Addresses.  Mabie,  Books  and  Culture;  Short  Studies  in  Literature.  Mach, 
Greek  Sculpture.  Morris,  Hopes  and  Fears  for  Art.  Palgrave,  Golden 
Treasury.  Partridge,  Art  for  America.  Posnett,  Comparative  Literature. 
Ruskin,  The  Two  Paths.  Schiller,  Essays.  Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of 
Literature.  Sturgis,  The  Appreciation  of  Pictures;  The  Appreciation  of 
Sculpture.  Taine,  Lectures  on  Art.  Van  Dyke,  The  Meaning  of  Pictures. 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Note-Books.  Wagner,  Art  Life  and  Theories 
of;  Beethoven.  Warner,  The  Relation  of  Literature  to  Life.  Wilde,  The 
Soul  of  Man  under  Socialism.  Witt,  How  to  Look  at  Pictures. 


23 


IV.  THE  MEANING  AND  FUNCTION  OF 
SCULPTURE  AND  PAINTING 

"If  you  know  how  to  describe  and  write  down  the  appearance  of  the 
forms,  the  painter  can  make  them  so  that  they  appear  enlivened  with 
lights  and  shadows  which  create  the  very  expression  of  the  faces;  herein 
you  cannot  attain  with  the  pen  where  he  attains  with  the  brush." 

— Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Note-Books,  arranged  by 
Edward  McCurdy,  p.  159. 

Differences  among  the  arts. — Each  fine  art  possessing  its  distinctive 
line  of  appeal.  This  evidenced  in  the  fact  that  it  is  rare  to  find  an  artist, 
practising  one,  adequately  appreciating  others.  Tendency  in  artist 
and  student  alike  to  see  the  one  art  from  within  and  appreciate  its  sig- 
nificance, the  others  from  without  and  perceive  their  limitations.  Evil 
of  this.  Great  need  that  the  artist  should  saturate  himself  with  the 
material  of  other  arts  than  his  own.  Thus  need  to  see  broadly  and 
impersonally  the  meaning  and  function  of  each  art  in  relation  to  the 
spirit  of  man  and  in  relation  to  the  other  arts  expressing  the  same 
universal  basis. 

The  three  questions:  (1)  What  of  the  whole  content  of  the  human 
spirit  does  the  particular  art  express?  (2)  What  is  the  means  and 
method  of  its  expression?  (3)  What  are  its  limitations? 

Method  of  answering:  not  by  philosophic  theory,  but  by  an  open 
study  of  works  of  art  in  each  field.  A  little  first-hand  study  of  art 
better  worth  while  than  much  reading  of  criticism. 

The  fact  of  the  permanence  of  a  particular  art  proving  that  it  ex- 
presses or  interprets  some  aspect  of  man's  spirit  better  or  more  easily 
than  any  other.  Compare,  otherwise  the  art  would  not  persist  except 
as  novelty.  Note  the  rise  and  subsidence  of  certain  arts  historically. 
The  reasons  why  mosaic  work  has  lost  the  place  it  occupied  in  the  days 
when  Ravenna's  churches  were  being  adorned.  Compare  changes  in 
fresco  painting.  Significance  of  the  permanence  of  sculpture,  painting, 
poetry  and  music. 

Characteristics  of  sculpture. — The  Venus  de  Milo  as  a  representative 
work  of  ancient  art.  What  is  given  in  this  statue?  Character  of  the 
conception  embodied.  Method  by  which  it  is  expressed.  Effect  on 

24 


the  beholder  of  the  color  of  the  marble  and  of  the  beauty  of  technical 
execution.  The  deeper  feelings  one  has  in  the  presence  of  the  statue. 
Significance  that  these  emotions  vary  with  different  individuals;  yet, 
the  conception,  if  understood,  entirely  definite  and  embodied  in  defined, 
permanent  form.  Thus  the  conception  given,  the  emotions,  relatively 
speaking,  associated. 

The  Hermes  of  Praxiteles  and  the  three  Goddesses  of  the  Parthenon. 
What  these  express  in  idea  and  execution.  Causes  of  the  feelings  they 
tend  to  arouse  in  the  beholder.  Difference  in  the  ancient  and  modern 
feeling  associated  with  such  a  statue  as  the  Amazon  of  the  Villa  Mattei. 

Michael  Angelo's  statues  on  the  Medicean  tombs.  Comparison  with 
Greek  sculpture  in  conception,  execution  and  associated  emotions. 

Modern  work  in  the  field  of  sculpture  analyzed.  The  Joan  of  Arc  of 
Chapu;  other  characteristic  work  in  the  Luxembourg  gallery.  Max 
Klinger's  Salome. 

Transition  from  sculpture  to  painting  through  relief-work.  The 
Nymph  and  Infant  Bacchus;  the  bronze  doors  of  Ghiberti. 

Painting. — The  Pompeian  frescoes  as  painting  in  its  nearest  approach 
to  sculpture.  These  as  presenting  human  figures,  simply  treated,  with 
slight  background.  Less  complete  and  realistic  form  than  in  sculpture; 
but  vastly  increased  scope  in  both  breadth  and  depth.  Effect  of  the 
much  greater  use  of  color. 

Michael  Angelo's  Creation  of  Adam;  his  Last  Judgment.  Difference 
in  feelings  aroused  by  the  latter  work  in  accordance  with  the  training 
and  belief  of  the  beholder. 

Raphael's  Sistine  Madonna:  the  conception  given;  method  by  which 
expressed.  Direct  emotional  effect  of  the  color  used  and  of  the  grace 
and  beauty  of  execution. 

Characteristics  of  a  Corot  landscape:  what  we  feel  in  the  presence  of 
it  as  compared  with  what  the  Greeks  might  have  felt.  The  interpreta- 
tion of  humanity  in  modern  art :  compare  in  Millet,  Bastien-Lepage, 
Cormon.  Relation  of  conception  to  emotion  in  such  work;  contrast 
with  the  painting  of  the  Italian  Renaissance. 

Summary. — What  sculpture  and  painting  are  alike  capable  of  giving 
definitely.  Elements  common  to  both  in  methods"  Differences  between 
them.  What  neither  is  capable  of  achieving.  Why  sculpture  was  the 
characteristic  art  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  painting  of  the  Renaissance 
Italians. 

All  art  appealing  immediately  to  the  senses ;  danger  if  it  stops  there. 
The  true  appeal  through  the  senses  to  the  soul.  Thus  how  art  may 
degenerate  and  become  dangerous.  The  problem  of  Faust's  vision  in 
the  mirror. 

25 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"The  eye,  which  is  called  the  window  of  the  soul,  is  the  chief  means 
whereby  the  understanding  may  most  fully  and  abundantly  appreciate 
the  infinite  works  of  nature;  and  the  ear  is  the  second  inasmuch  as  it 
acquires  its  importance  from  the  fact  that  it  hears  the  things  which  the 
eye  has  seen.  If  you  historians,  or  poets,  or  mathematicians  had  never 
seen  things  with  your  eyes  you  would  be  ill  able  to  describe  them  in  your 
writings.  And  if  you,  O  poet,  represent  a  story  by  depicting  it  with  your 
pen,  the  painter  with  his  brush  will  so  render  it  as  to  be  more  easily 
satisfying  and  less  tedious  to  understand.  If  you  call  painting  'dumb 
poetry,'  then  the  painter  may  say  of  the  poet  that  his  art  is  'blind 
painting.'  Consider  then  which  is  the  more  grievous  affliction,  to  be 
blind  or  be  dumb!  Although  the  poet  has  as  wide  a  choice  of  subjects 
as  the  painter,  his  creations  fail  to  afford  as  much  satisfaction  to  man- 
kind as  do  paintings,  for  while  poetry  attempts  with  words  to  represent 
forms,  actions,  and  scenes,  the  painter  employs  the  exact  images  of  the 
forms  in  order  to  reproduce  these  forms.  Consider,  then,  which  is  more 
fundamental  to  man,  the  name  of  man  or  his  image?  The  name  changes 
with  change  of  country;  the  form  is  unchanged  except  by  death." 

— Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Note-Books,  arranged  by 
Edward  McCurdy,  pp.  156,  157. 

"If  the  artist,  out  of  ever- varying  nature,  can  only  make  use  of  a 
single  moment,  and  the  painter  especially  can  only  use  this  moment  from 
one  point  of  view,  whilst  their  works  are  intended  to  stand  the  test  not 
only  of  a  passing  glance,  but  of  long  and  repeated  contemplation,  it  is 
clear  that  this  moment,  and  the  point  from  which  this  moment  is 
viewed,  cannot  be  chosen  with  too  great  a  regard  to  results.  Now  that 
only  is  a  happy  choice  which  allows  the  imagination  free  scope.  The 
longer  we  gaze,  the  more  must  our  imagination  add;  and  the  more  our 
imagination  adds,  the  more  we  must  believe  we  see.  In  the  whole 
course  of  an  emotion  there  is  no  moment  which  possesses  this  advantage 
so  little  as  its  highest  stage.  There  is  nothing  beyond  this ;  and  the  pres- 
entation of  extremes  to  the  eye  clips  the  wings  of  fancy,  prevents  her 
from  soaring  beyond  the  impression  of  the  senses,  and  compels  her  to 
occupy  herself  with  weaker  images ;  further  than  these  she  ventures  not, 
but  shrinks  from  the  visible  fulness  of  expression  as  her  limit.  Thus,  if 
Laokopn  sighs,  the  imagination  can  hear  him  shriek;  but  if  he  shrieks,  it 
can  neither  rise  a  step  higher  above  nor  descend  a  step  below  this  repre- 
sentation, without  seeing  him  in  a  condition  which,  as  it  will  be 
more  endurable,  becomes  less  interesting.  It  either  hears  him  merely 
moaning,  or  sees  him  already  dead. 

"Furthermore,  this  single  moment  receives  through  art  an  unchange- 
able duration;  therefore  it  must  not  express  anything,  of  which  we  can 
think  only  as  transitory.  All  appearances,  to  whose  very  being,  ac- 
cording to  our  ideas,  it  is  essential  that  they  suddenly  break  forth  and 
as  suddenly  vanish,  that  they  can  be  what  they  are  but  for  a  moment, — 
all  such  appearances,  be  they  pleasing  or  be  they  horrible,  receive, 
through  the  prolongation  which  art  gives  them,  such  an  unnatural 
character,  that  at  every  repeated  glance  the  impression  they  make  grows 

26 


weaker  and  weaker,  and  at  last  fills  us  with  dislike  or  disgust  of  the 
whole  object." 

— Lessing,  Laokoon,  pp.  19,  20. 

"  It  is  neither  charm  nor  is  it  dignity  which  speaks  from  the  glorious 
face  of  the  Juno  Ludovici;  it  is  neither  of  these,  for  it  is  both  at  once. 
While  the  female  god  challenges  our  veneration,  the  godlike  woman  at 
the  same  time  kindles  our  love.  But  while  in  ecstacy  we  give  ourselves 
up  to  the  heavenly  beauty,  the  heavenly  self-repose  awes  us  back.  The 
whole  form  rests  and  dwells  in  itself — a  fully  complete  creation  in  itself — 
and  as  if  she  were  out  of  space,  without  advance  or  resistance ;  it  shows 
no  force  contending  with  force,  no  opening  through  which  time  could 
break  in.  Irresistibly  carried  away  and  attracted  by  her  womanly 
charm,  kept  off  at  a  distance  by  her  godly  dignity,  we  also  find  ourselves 
at  length  in  the  state  of  the  greatest  repose,  and  the  result  is  a  wonderful 
impression,  for  which  the  understanding  has  no  idea  and  language  no 
name." 

— Schiller,  Essays  jEsthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  72. 

"As  practising  myself  the  art  of  sculpture  no  less  than  that  of  paint- 
ing, and  doing  both  the  one  and  the  other  in  the  same  degree,  it  seems 
to  me  that  without  suspicion  of  unfairness  I  may  venture  to  give  an 
opinion  as  to  which  of  the  two  is  the  more  intellectual,  and  of  the  greater 
difficulty  and  perfection.  In  the  first  place  sculpture  is  dependent  on 
certain  lights,  namely  those  from  above,  while  a  picture  carries  every- 
where with  it  its  own  light  and  shade;  light  and  shade  therefore  are 
essential  to  sculpture.  In  this  respect  the  sculptor  is  aided  by  the 
nature  of  the  relief  which  produces  these  of  its  own  accord,  but  the 
painter  artificially  creates  them  by  his  art  in  places  where  nature  would 
normally  do  the  like.  The  sculptor  cannot  render  the  difference  in  the 
varying  natures  of  the  colours  of  objects;  painting  does  not  fail  to  do  so 
in  any  particular.  The  lines  of  perspective  of  sculptors  do  not  seem  in 
any  way  true ;  those  of  painters  may  appear  to  extend  a  hundred  miles 
beyond  the  work  itself." 

— Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Note-Books,  arranged  by 
Edward  McCurdy,  pp.  160,  161. 

"  What  the  artist  does  or  has  done  excites  in  us  the  mood  in  which  he 
himself  was  when  he  did  it.  A  free  mood  in  the  artist  makes  us  free ;  a 
constrained  one  makes  us  uncomfortable.  We  usually  find  this  freedom 
of  the  artist  where  he  is  fully  equal  to  his  subject.  It  is  on  this  account 
we  are  so  pleased  with  Dutch  pictures;  the  artists  painted  the  life 
around  them,  of  which  they  were  perfect  masters.^  If  we  are  to  feel  this 
freedom  of  mind  in  an  actor,  he  must,  by  study,"imagination,  and  nat- 
ural disposition,  be  perfect  master  of  his  part,  must  have  all  bodily  req- 
uisites at  his  command,  and  must  be  upheld  by  a  certain  youthful 
energy.  But  study  is  not  enough  without  imagination,  and  study  and 
imagination  together  are  not  enough  without  natural  disposition. 
Women  do  the  most  through  imagination  and  temperament." 

— Goethe,  Conversations  with  Eckermann  and  Soret,  pp.  417,  418. 

"  If  you  would  have  me  speak  only  of  panel  painting  I  am  content  to 
give  an  opinion  between  it  and  sculpture  by  saying  that  painting  is  more 

27 


beautiful,  more  imaginative,  and  richer  in  resource,  while  sculpture  is 
more  enduring,  but  excels  in  nothing  else.  Sculpture  reveals  what  it  is 
with  little  effort;  painting  seems  a  thing  miraculous,  making  things  in- 
tangible appear  tangible,  presenting  in  relief  things  which  are  flat,  in 
distance  things  near  at  hand.  In  fact  painting  is  adorned  with  infinite 
possibilities  of  which  sculpture  can  make  no  use." 

— Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Note-Books,  arranged  by 
Edward  McCurdy,  p.  162. 

TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  peculiar  excellences   has   sculpture  that  are  shown  by  no 

other  art? 

2.  What  special  excellences  has  painting  that  are  shown  by  no  other 

art? 

3.  What  cannot  be  directly  or  adequately  expressed  in  sculpture?     In 

painting? 

4.  Compare  in  conception,  execution  and  associated  emotions  Andrea 

del  Sarto's  and  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  painting  of  the  Last  Supper. 

5.  What  effect  has  the  color  and  texture  of  marble  upon  the  emotions? 

6.  Analyze  carefully  the  effect  of  Michael  Angelo's  Last  Judgment  upon 

your  senses,  intellect  and  emotions. 

7.  Compare  carefully,  in  the  effect  upon  the  beholder,  the  Venus  de 

MUo,  Michael  Angelo's  Pieta  (in  St.  Peter's)  and  Chapu's  Joan 
of  Arc. 

8.  Study  the  relation  of  significance  to  beauty  in  Raphael's  Sistine 

Madonna  and  Millet's  Sower. 

9.  What  is  the  significance  for  the  function  of  sculpture  and  painting 

that  in  both  arts  form  is  statical  and  relatively  permanent? 
10.  Study  the  respective  effects  of  form  and  color  in  sculpture;    in 
painting. 

REFERENCES 

Brown,  The  Fine  Arts.  Caffin,  How  to  Study  Pictures.  Goethe,  Trav- 
els in  Italy.  Holden,  Audiences.  Knight,  The  Philosophy  of  the  Beautiful. 
LaFarge,  Considerations  on  Painting.  Leighton,  Addresses.  Lessing, 
Laokoon.  Mach,  Greek  Sculpture.  Noyes,  The  Enjoyment  of  Art.  Pal- 
grave,  Poetry  Compared  with  the  Other  Fine  Arts.  Parry,  The  Ministry 
of  Fine  Art  to  the  Happiness  of  Life.  Puffer,  The  Psychology  of  Beauty, 
chapter  iv.  Raymond,  Painting,  Sculpture  and  Architecture  as  Repre- 
sentative Arts.  Ruskin,  Aratra  Pentelid;  Lectures  on  Art;  Modern 
Painters.  Sturgis,  The  Appreciation  of  Pictures;  The  Appreciation  of 
Sculpture.  Van  Dyke,  Art  for  Art's  Sake;  How  to  Judge  of  a  Picture; 
The  Meaning  of  Pictures;  Principles  of  Art.  Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's 
Note-Books;  Treatise  on  Painting.  Witt,  How  to  Look  at  Pictures. 

28 


V.    THE  MEANING  AND  FUNCTION  OF 
MUSIC 

"Continue  to  translate  yourself  to  the  heaven  of  art;  there  is  no  more 
undisturbed,  unmixed,  purer  happiness  than  may  thus  be  attained." 
— Beethoven,  in  Kerst,  Beethoven:  The  Man  and  the  Artist,  p.  12. 

The  art  of  music. — Music  the  most  difficult  of  the  arts  to  define  in 
function  and  meaning,  because  the  most  subtle,  seeming  to  produce  its 
effects  as  by  a  miracle. 

The  relation  of  music  to  Nature.  The  sounds  utilized  in  music  all 
found  in  the  natural  world.  Compare  the  effect  of  the  wind  sighing  in 
the  pine-trees;  bird  songs;  the  rhythmic  beat  of  waves  upon  the  shore. 
Yet  music  not  often  directly  imitating  nature  as  do  sculpture  and 
painting.  Music  resolving  natural  forms  into  their  elements  and  then 
recombining  these  independently.  Thus  music  accomplishing  in  time 
relations  more  what  architecture  does  in  space  relations.  Compare  the 
use  in  architecture  of  forms  given  by  Nature,  as  in  the  tree  column  or 
cave  roof.  Hence  deep  significance  in  the  oft-repeated  comparison  of 
music  and  architecture.  Architecture  as  "frozen  music";  music  as 
liquid  architecture.  Illustrate  in  Notre  Dame  de  Paris;  in  Beethoven's 
Moonlight  Sonata. 

The  appeal  of  architecture. — The  effect  upon  the  beholder  of  the 
Greek  temple  at  Psestum.  •  Sensuous  delight  in  beautiful  forms  and 
colors;  conception  given;  emotion  aroused.  Contrast  a  mediaeval  tem- 
ple such  as  Notre  Dame  or  the  cathedral  at  Milan.  What  is  dominant 
and  what  subordinate  in  each  work. 

The  effect  of  music. — The  appeal  in  a  relatively  slight  musical  com- 
position such  as  Schumann's  Arabesque  (Op.  18)  or  Chopin's  Impromptu 
(Op.  29).  Type  of  sensuous  pleasure  as  compared  with  the  other  arts. 
The  dynamic  series  of  forms  arousing  a  series  of  emotional  states.  The 
reflections  associated  with  these  states  of  feeling.  Thus  the  two-fold 
contrast  between  music  and  the  arts  dealing  with  space  relations:  (1) 
What  is  dominant  in  the  one,  associated  or  subordinate  in  the  other; 
(2)  In  the  one  form  dynamic  and  evanescent,  in  the  other  statical  and 
relatively  permanent. 

The  direct  intellectual  element  in  analyzing  the  composition:  com- 

29 


pare  the  study  of  motives  and  harmony.  Relation  of  tliis  to  the  imme- 
diate response  to  the  appeal  of  art.  Intellectual  analysis  possible  in 
relation  to  all  the  arts;  yet  while  this  may  lead  to  deepened  apprecia- 
tion, standing  somewhat  aside  from  the  response  to  the  art  itself. 

Fuller  illustration  of  the  line  of  appeal  of  music  in  the  best  of  Chopin's 
Nocturnes  and  the  Ninth  Symphony  of  Beethoven.  What  is  given  in 
each  of  these  works.  The  means  by  which  the  effect  is  attained. 

The  unique  sphere  of  music. — Significance  that  music  must  be  re- 
created every  time  it  is  enjoyed.  Forms  in  music  successive  in  a  dyna- 
mic series,  each  element  dying  in  the  same  moment  in  which  it  is 
created.  Thus  sublimation  of  form  in  music  and  the  freeing  of  the 
content  from  sensuous  association. 

Possibility  of  expressing  for  the  emotions  what  cannot  be  represented 
for  the  imagination.  Note,  possible  to  conceive  God,  an  immaterial 
soul,  a  transcendent  heaven;  but  impossible  to  carve  or  paint  these. 
Power  of  music  to  express  or  awaken  the  emotions  we  associate  with 
the  conceptions  of  the  transcendent,  the  supernatural  and  the  divine. 
True  sense  in  which  music  is  the  one  art  "capable  of  revealing  the 
infinite."  Browning's  illustration  of  this  in  Abt  Vogler. 

Music  as  the  most  personal  of  the  fine  arts  in  expressing  emotions  no 
other  art  can  adequately  embody;  at  the  same  time  music  the  most 
social  of  the  fine  arts  in  arousing  the  feelings  that  unite  men,  where 
intellectual  opinions  and  convictions  tend  to  separate  them.  Illustra- 
tion in  the  Ouverture  to  Tannhauser. 

The  obvious  reason  why  it  is  so  much  more  difficult  to  put  music  into 
intellectual  terms  than  is  true  of  the  other  arts.  Various  attempts  to 
associate  a  definite  series  of  intellectual  conceptions  with  the  sensuous 
and  emotional  appeal  of  music.  Compare  in  naming  compositions ;  in 
"program  music";  in  interpretations.  Rigid  limits  to  these  attempts. 

Composite  arts. — The  reasons  why  music  lends  itself  so  readily  to 
combination  with  other  arts.  The  song:  its  appeal  as  compared  with 
music  unassociated  with  words.  Church  music  and  its  development. 

The  opera  as  a  peculiarly  characteristic  composite  modern  art.  Ele- 
ments composing  it;  the  question  as  to  which  should  be  central.  The 
value  of  Wagner's  answer. 

The  cultural  value  of  music. — Peculiar  danger  in  music  since  it  may 
arouse  emotional  sensibility  without  directing  its  expression.  Plato's 
view.  The  effect  of  merely  sensuous  music.  The  need  to  choose  your 
companions  wisely  in  hearing  even  great  music. 

Yet  the  danger  in  music  merely  the  corollary  of  its  peculiar  strength 
and  power.  Supreme  value  of  its  refining  and  exalting  influence.  Its 
high  significance  for  our  time,  indeed  for  the  human  spirit  in  all  time. 

30 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"And  indeed  the  greatness  of  the  poet  may  be  best  measured  by  that 
concerning  which  he  is  silent,  in  order  to  let  the  unspeakable  itself  speak 
to  us  silently.  It  is  only  the  musician  who  can  bring  this  that  is  silent 
into  clear  expression;  and  the  unerring  form  of  his  loud-resounding 
silence  is  endless  melody!" 

— Wagner,  in  "The  Music  of  the  Future,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  p. 
180. 

"The  more  definitely  a  composer  aims  at  making  his  music  an  ex- 
pression of  emotion,  the  more  firmly  must  he  fashion  it  according  to  the 
dictates  of  intellect,  for  were  he  to  attempt  emotional  expression  with- 
out preserving  the  supremacy  of  the  reason  in  his  work,  he  would  speed- 
ily fall  into  formlessness,  and  instead  of  enlightening  would  merely  be- 
wilder his  hearers.  In  all  art  creative,  or  interpretative,  the  emotion 
must  be  under  the  dominance  of  the  reason,  or  else  there  is  no  method, 
and  art  without  method  is  inconceivable." 

— Henderson,  What  is  Good  Music,  p.  98. 

"What  instrumental  music  is  unable  to  achieve,  lies  also  beyond  the 
pale  of  music  proper;  for  it  alone  is  pure  and  self-subsistent  music.  No 
matter  whether  we  regard  vocal  music  as  superior  to,  or  more  effective 
than  instrumental  music — an  unscientific  proceeding,  by  the  way,  which 
is  generally  the  upshot  of  one-sided  dilettantism — we  can  not  help  ad- 
mitting that  the  term  'music,'  in  its  true  meaning,  must  exclude  com- 
positions in  which  words  are  set  to  music.  In  vocal  or  operatic  music  it 
is  impossible  to  draw  so  nice  a  distinction  between  the  effect  of  the 
music,  and  that  of  the  words,  that  an  exact  definition  of  the  share  which 
each  has  had  in  the  production  of  the  whole  becomes  practicable.  An 
enquiry  into  the  subject  of  music  must  leave  out  even  compositions  with 
inscriptions,  or  so-called  programme-music.  Its  union  with  poetry, 
though  enhancing  the  power  of  music,  does  not  widen  its  limits. 

— Hanslick,  The  Beautiful  in  Music,  pp.  44,  45. 

"How,  ye  formal  philosophers,  ye  men  of  the  'sounding  arabesque,' 
unto  whom  the  spirit  shows  itself  not,  because  ye  do  not  believe  in  it, 
or  search  after  it  in  the  organic  structure  with  the  gross  scalpel  of  the 
anatomist — know  ye  not  that  Goethe's  'disengaging  one's  self  from  a 
mood,'  which  he  found  in  poetry,  also  applies  to  the  musician — that 
every  truly  artistic  tone- work  is  also  an  '  occasional  poem '  ?  Surely,  no 
musical  thought  has  ever  been  generated  with  vital  power  in  your  soul, 
or,  if  you  had  one,  it  was  a  greenhouse  plant. "  Otherwise  you  would 
know,  that  the  artist  hastens  with  everything  that  delights  and  pains 
him  to  his  beloved  art,  and  desires  of  it  that  it  should  preserve  each 
mood  for  him  in  the  sacred  vessel  of  its  beautiful  form  for  all  time." 

— Ambros,  The  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry,  p.  106. 

"  While  sound  in  speech  is  but  a  sign,  that  is,  a  means  for  the  purpose 
of  expressing  something  which  is  quite  distinct  from  its  medium;  sound 
in  music  is  the  end,  that  is,  the  ultimate  and  absolute  object  in  view. 

31 


The  intrinsic  beauty  of  the  musical  forms  in  the  latter  case,  and  the  ex- 
clusive dominion  of  thought  over  sound  as  a  mere  medium  of  expres- 
sion, in  the  former,  are  so  utterly  distinct  as  to  render  the  union  of  these 
two  elements  a  logical  impossibility." 

— Hanslick,  The  Beautiful  in  Music,  p.  94. 

"Let  us  establish  first  of  all  the  fact  that  the  one  true  form  of  music  is 
melody;  that  without  melody  music  is  inconceivable,  and  that  music 
and  melody  are  inseparable.  That  a  piece  of  music  has  no  melody,  can 
therefore  only  mean  that  the  musician  has  not  attained  to  the  real  for- 
mation of  an  effective  form,  that  can  have  a  decisive  influence  upon  the 
feelings;  which  simply  shows  the  absence  of  talent  in  the  composer." 

— Wagner,  in  "  The  Music  of  the  Future,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  p.  175. 

"In  its  ideal  feature  music  keeps  within  its  natural  boundaries,  so 
long  as  it  does  not  undertake  to  go  beyond  its  expressional  capacity— 
that  is,  so  long  as  the  poetical  thought  of  the  composer  becomes  intelli- 
gible from  the  moods  called  forth  by  his  work  and  the  train  of  ideas 
stimulated  thereby,  that  is,  from  the  composition  itself,  and  so  long  as 
nothing  foreign,  not  organically  connected  with  the  music  itself,  must 
be  dragged  in,  in  order  to  assist  comprehension." 

— Ambros,  The  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry,  pp.  181,  182. 

"It  must  be  in  music,  that  language  intelligible  to  all  men,  that  the 
great  equalizing  power  is  to  be  found,  which,  converting  the  language 
of  ideas  into  the  language  of  the  feelings,  would  bring  the  deepest  secrets 
of  the  artistic  conception  to  general  comprehension,  especially  if  this 
comprehension  can  be  made  distinct  through  the  plastic  expression  of 
dramatic  representation, — can  be  given  such  a  distinctness  as  up  to  this 
time  painting  alone  has  been  able  to  claim  as  its  peculiar  influence." 

— Wagner,  in  "  The  Music  of  the  Future,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  p.  141. 

"In  opera,  willy-nilly,  poetry  must  be  the  obedient  daughter  of 
music.  Why  do  Italian  operas  please  everywhere,  even  in  Paris,  as  I 
have  been  a  witness,  despite  the  wretchedness  of  their  librettos?  Be- 
cause in  them  music  rules  and  compels  us  to  forget  everything  else.  All 
the  more  must  an  opera  please  in  which  the  plot  is  well  carried  out,  and 
the  words  are  written  simply  for  the  sake  of  the  music  and  not  here  and 
thereto  please  some  miserable  rhyme,  which,  God  knows,  adds  nothing 
to  a  theatrical  representation  but  more  often  harms  it.  Verses  are  the 
most  indispensable  thing  in  music,  but  rhymes,  for  the  sake  of  rhymes, 
the  most  injurious.  Those  who  go  to  work  so  pedantically  will  assur- 
edly come  to  grief  along  with  the  music.  It  were  best  if  a  good  com- 
poser, who  understands  the  stage,  and  is  himself  able  to  suggest  some- 
thing, and  a  clever  poet  could  be  united  in  one,  like  a  phoenix." 

— Mozart,  in  Kerst,  Mozart:  The  Man  and  the  Artist,  p.  28. 

"  That  which  so  strongly  attracted  our  great  poets  towards  music  was 
the  fact  that  it  was  at  the  same  time  the  purest  form  and  the  most  sen- 
suous realization  of  that  form.  The  abstract  arithmetical  number,  the 
mathematical  figure,  meets  us  here  as  a  creation  having  an  irresistible 

32 


influence  upon  the  emotions — that  is,  it  appears  as  melody;  and  this  can 
be  as  unerringly  established,  so  as  to  produce  sensuous  effect,  as  the 
poetic  diction  of  written  language,  on  the  contrary,  is  abandoned  to 
every  whim  in  the  personal  character  of  the  person  reciting  it.  What 
was  not  practically  possible  for  Shakespeare — to  be  himself  the  actor  of 
each  one  of  his  roles — is  practicable  for  the  musical  composer,  and  this 
with  great  definiteness, — since  he  speaks  to  us  directly  through  each  one 
of  the  musicians  who  execute  his  works.  In  this  case  the  transmigra- 
tion of  the  poet's  soul  into  the  body  of  the  performer  takes  place  accord- 
ing to  the  infallible  laws  of  the  most  positive  technique;  and  the  com- 
poser who  gives  the  correct  measure  for  a  technically  right  performance 
of  his  work,  becomes  completely  one  with  the  musician  who  performs  it, 
to  an  extent  that  can  at  most  only  be  affirmed  of  the  constructive  artist 
in  regard  to  a  work  which  he  had  himself  produced  in  color  or  stone, — 
if,  indeed,  a  transmigration  of  his  soul  into  lifeless  matter  is  a  suppos- 
able  case." 

— Wagner,  in  "The  Purpose  of  the  Opera,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  pp. 
226,  227. 


1.  What  relation  has  the  art  of  music  to  the  sounds  given  in  the  natu- 

ral world? 

2.  Choose  two  musical  compositions  you  know  well  and  analyze  in 

detail  the  effect  they  produce  upon  you  and  the  means  by  which 
the  effect  is  produced. 

3.  What  element  in  music  corresponds  in  any  degree  to  color  in  paint- 

ing? 

4.  Compare  carefully  the  art  of  music  in  dealing  with  time  relations 

with  architecture  in  dealing  with  space  relations. 

5.  Compare  what  is  dominant  in  the  appeal  of  music  with  what  is 

dominant  in  the  appeal  of  sculpture  and  painting. 

6.  What  results  from  the  fact  that  in  music  form  is  dynamic  and  evan- 

escent, while  in  sculpture  and  painting  it  is  statical  and  relatively 
permanent? 

7.  What  may  be  said  to  be  the  intellectual  element  in  music? 

8.  Compare  what  is  given  in  Gounod's  music  to  Faust  with  what  is 

given  in  a  series  of  paintings  dealing  with  the  Faust  story. 

9.  Is  the  effect  good  or  bad  of  merely  sensuously  enjoying  slight 

music? 

10.  Compare  the  cultural  value  of  music  with  that  of  sculpture  and 
painting. 

REFERENCES 

Ambros,  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry.    Browning,  Abt  Vogler; 
With  Charles  Avison;    Master  Hugues  of  Saxe-Gotha;   Saul.   Carpenter, 

33 


Angela'  Wings.  Davies,  The  Musical  Consciousness.  Dwight,  Intellec- 
tual Influence  of  Music;  Music  as  a  Means  of  Culture.  Eastman,  Musi- 
cal Education  and  Musical  Art.  Goddard,  Reflections  upon  Musical  Art. 
Gurney,  The  Power  of  Sound.  Hanchett,  The  Art  of  the  Musician.  Hand, 
Esthetics  of  Musical  Art.  Hanslick,  The  Beautiful  in  Music.  Helmholtz, 
On  the  Sensations  of  Tone.  Henderson,  What  is  Good  Music?  Hoi  den, 
Audiences.  Kerst,  Beethoven;  Mozart.  Knight,  The  Philosophy  of  the 
Beautiful.  Kobbe",  How  to  Appreciate  Music.  Krehbiel,  How  to  Listen  to 
Music.  Kufferath,  Rhythm,  Melody  and  Harmony.  Lanier,  Music 
and  Poetry.  Mathews,  How  to  Understand  Music;  Music:  Its  Ideals  and 
Methods.  Norton,  The  Intellectual  Element  in  Music.  Palgrave,  Poetry 
Compared  with  the  Other  Fine  Arts.  Parry,  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of 
Music.  Plato,  Republic  (books  II  and  III).  Puffer,  The  Psychology  of 
Beauty,  chapter  v.  Raymond,  Rhythm  and  Harmony  in  Poetry  and 
Music.  Ritter,  Music  in  Its  Relation  to  Intellectual  Life.  Saint-Saens, 
The  Nature  and  Object  of  Music.  Schopenhauer,  On  the  Metaphysics  of 
Music.  Spencer,  The  Origin  and  Function  of  Music.  Surette  and  Mason, 
The  Appreciation  of  Music.  Wagner,  Art  Life  and  Theories  of;  Bee- 
thoven. 


VI.   THE  MEANING  AND  FUNCTION  OF 
POETRY 

"Form  without  substance  is  a  shadow  of  riches,  and  all  possible 
cleverness  in  expression  is  of  no  use  to  him  who  has  nothing  to  express." 
— Schiller,  Essays  ^Esthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  239. 

The  nature  of  poetry. — Poetry  as  the  highest  and  most  characteristic 
form  of  literature.  Bewildering  wealth  of  material  in  this  art  and  most 
many-sided  relation  to  the  spirit  of  man.  Hence  difficulty  in  defining 
function. 

Poetry  in  relation  to  sculpture  and  painting. — Possibility  in  poetry  of 
expressing  definite  conceptions  for  the  intellect  and  imagination.  Com- 
pare Shelley's  Ozymandias  of  Egypt.  What  is  given  in  this  sonnet: 
compare  a  statue.  Less  immediate  portrayal  for  the  vision  in  poetry. 
Hence  less  direct  power  in  appeal  to  the  imagination;  but  conceptions 
freed  more  from  sense  association.  Moreover  ideas  expressed  through 
a  succession  of  forms  in  time  relation. 

Power  of  poetry  to  paint  a  picture:  compare  Wordsworth's  sonnet 
Upon  Westminster  Bridge.  Contrast  in  appeal  with  a  painting  of  the 
same  scene.  The  ways  in  which  each  art  has  its  own  superiority. 
Truth  and  error  in  Lessing's  theory  of  descriptive  poetry  as  developed 
in  Laokoon. 

Poetry  in  relation  to  music. — Direct  musical  appeal  in  the  two  son- 
nets studied.  Direct  expression  of  emotion  and  appeal  to  emotion  in 
poetry.  Compare  Shelley's  lyric  To  the  Night.  Here  music  dominant, 
appealing  to  the  emotions,  as  in  Ozymandias  thought  and  imagination 
appealing  to  inner  vision.  How  all  poetry  should  be  read  aloud.  Even 
when  read  silently,  appeal  to  the  ear  in  music  through  the  imagination. 
The  effect  of  poetry  read  aloud  in  a  language  the  hearer  does  not  know: 
direct  appeal  of  music  in  poetry  even  when  the  ideas  are  not  given  at  all. 
Thus  poetry  making  a  direct  appeal  to  the  emotions  through  music, 
though  with  less  absoluteness  than  in  music  and  without  in  any  way 
usurping  or  replacing  the  functions  of  the  latter  art. 

Byron's  stanzas  on  the  sunset  hour  in  Don  Juan.  What  they  give 
in  natural  beauty;  association  of  the  human  past,  of  religion  and  of 
literature;  personal  experience.  Compare  what  is  given  in  Millet's 
Angelus;  in  a  musical  composition  awakening  the  same  emotions. 

35 


The  two  types  of  poetry. — Poetry  that  is  dominantly  musical  in 
appeal.  Compare  many  lyrics  of  Shelley;  Spenser.  The  description  of 
the  dwelling  of  Morpheus  in  The  Faery  Queen.  Poetry  in  which  the 
dominant  appeal  is  through  imaginative  vision.  Compare  what  is  moat 
characteristic  in  Dante  and  Shakespeare. 

Relation  of  poetry  to  human  life. — Poetry  combining  in  a  new  union 
the  functions  of  the  other  arts  without  replacing  them  in  their  own 
fields.  Poetry  the  most  complex  and  universal  of  the  fine  arts  in 
many-sided  power  to  express  and  interpret  all  aspects  of  human  expe- 
rience. Compare  in  the  lyric;  the  epic;  the  drama. 

Prose  literature  in  relation  to  poetry.  The  same  functions  fulfilled 
on  another  plane.  The  rhythm  of  prose.  The  novel  as  a  prose  epic 
and  drama  set  in  a  lower  key. 

The  three  types  of  art  in  relation. — The  different  functions  of  the  arts 
illustrated  in  great  masterpieces.  Compare  Dante's  Divine  Comedy  with 
the  Last  Judgment  of  Michael  Angelo  and  a  mediaeval  cathedral,  and 
with  a  fugue  of  Bach  and  a  symphony  of  Beethoven. 

Compare  Cormon's  Cain,  Wagner's  music  in  The  Twilight  of  the  Gods, 
and  Shakespeare's  King  Lear. 

Compare  Watts'  painting  of  Francesco,  and  Paolo,  Wagner's  music  in 
Tristan  und  Isolde,  and  the  fifth  canto  of  Dante's  Inferno. 

Unity  in  the  arts. — The  spirit  of  man  a  unity,  hence  also  the  appeal 
of  the  arts.  In  all,  thought,  emotion  and  imagination;  in  all,  the  same 
principles  of  form,  of  beauty  and  harmony. 

This  evident  in  efforts  to  combine  the  arts  in  a  more  composite  art. 
Compare  the  union  of  poetry  and  music  in  song;  the  union  of  all  types 
of  art  in  the  Wagnerian  opera.  Inevitable  sacrifice  of  something  on  the 
part  of  each  of  the  arts  so  combined;  peculiar  adaptation  of  the  com- 
posite art  to  the  modern  spirit.  The  question  which  art  should  be 
central  in  the  composite  whole. 

The  service  of  poetry. — Danger  in  poetry  as  in  the  other  arts.  Evil 
of  seeking  merely  sensuous  beauty;  evil  of  portraying  life  to  satisfy  a 
morbid  and  decadent  taste.  Yet  the  evil  but  indicating  the  corellative 
power  in  the  true  ministration  of  art  to  the  human  spirit. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Beauty  of  style  and  harmony  and  grace  and  good  rhythm  depend 
on  simplicity, — I  mean  the  true  simplicity  of  a  rightly  and  nobly  ordered 
mind  and  character,  not  that  other  simplicity  which  is  only  an  euphuism 
for  folly." 

— Plato,  Republic,  book  III,  section  400. 

36 


"  I  believed  that  I  might  form  the  theory  that  every  individual  branch 
of  art  follows  out  a  development  of  its  powers  that  finally  leads  it  to 
their  limits;  and  that  it  cannot  pass  these  limits  without  the  danger  of 
losing  itself  in  the  unintelligible  and  absolutely  fantastic — even  in  the 
absurd.  I  thought  that  I  saw  in  this  point  the  necessity  for  it  to  join 
companionship  at  this  stage  with  another  class  of  art,  related  to  it,  and 
the  only  one  capable  of  going  on  from  this  position.  And  as  I  was  of 
necessity  keenly  interested  (having  regard  to  my  own  ideal)  in  following 
out  this  tendency  in  each  special  kind  of  art,  I  finally  believed  that  I 
could  recognize  it  most  distinctly  in  the  relation  of  poetry  to  music, — 
especially  considering  the  remarkable  importance  modern  music  has 
assumed.  And  as  I  thus  endeavored  to  imagine  that  work  of  art  in 
which  all  branches  of  art  could  unite  in  their  highest  perfection,  I  came 
as  a  matter  of  course  to  the  conscious  contemplation  of  that  ideal  which 
had  unconsciously  gradually  formed  within  me,  and  had  hovered  before 
the  seeking  artist." 

— Wagner,  in  "The  Music  of  the  Future,"  Art  Life  and  Theories,  p. 
147. 

"If  it  is  true  that  painting  and  poetry  in  their  imitations  make  use  of 
entirely  different  means  or  symbols — the  first,  namely,  of  form  and 
colour  in  space,  the  second  of  articulated  sounds  in  time — if  these  sym- 
bols indisputably  require  a  suitable  relation  to  the  thing  symbolized, 
then  it  is  clear  that  symbols  arranged  in  juxtaposition  can  only  express 
subjects  of  which  the  wholes  or  parts  exist  in  juxtaposition;  while  con- 
secutive symbols  can  only  express  subjects  of  which  the  wholes  or 
parts  are  themselves  consecutive. 

"Subjects  whose  wholes  or  parts  exist  in  juxtaposition  are  called 
bodies.  Consequently,  bodies  with  their  visible  properties  are  the  pecu- 
liar subjects  of  painting. 

"Subjects  whose  wholes  or  parts  are  consecutive  are  called  actions. 
Consequently,  actions  are  the  peculiar  subject  of  poetry. 

"Still,  all  bodies  do  not  exist  in  space  only,  but  also  in  tune.  They 
endure,  and  in  each  moment  of  their  duration  may  assume  a  different 
appearance,  or  stand  in  a  different  combination.  Each  of  these  momen- 
tary appearances  and  combinations  is  the  effect  of  a  preceding  one,  may 
be  the  cause  of  a  subsequent  one,  and  is  therefore,  as  it  were,  the  centre 
of  an  action.  Consequently,  painting  too  can  imitate  actions,  but  only 
indicatively,  by  means  of  bodies. 

"On  the  other  hand,  actions  cannot  exist  by  themselves,  they  must 
depend  on  certain  beings.  So  far,  therefore,  as  these  beings  are  bodies, 
or  are  regarded  as  such,  poetry  paints  bodies,  but  only  indicatively,  by 
means  of  actions. 

"  In  its  coexisting  compositions  painting  can  onjy  make  use  of  a  single 
instant  of  the  action,  and  must  therefore  choose  "the  one  which  is  most 
pregnant,  and  from  which  what  precedes  and  what  follows  can  be  most 
easily  gathered. 

"In  like  manner,  poetry,  in  its  progressive  imitations,  is  confined  to 
the  use  of  a  single  property  of  bodies,  and  must  therefore  choose  that 
which  calls  up  the  most  sensible  image  of  the  body  in  the  aspect  in  which 
she  makes  use  of  it." 

— Lessing,  Laokoon,  pp.  91,  92. 

37 


"As  to  Homer,  it  is  as  if  the  scales  had  fallen  from  my  eyes.  The 
descriptions,  similes  and  so  on  appear  to  us  poetical,  and  are  yet  un- 
speakably natural,  though  of  course  drawn  with  a  purity,  an  inward 
truth  enough  to  strike  us  poor  moderns  dumb.  The  very  strangest  fic- 
tions are  characterised  by  a  naturalness  I  never  felt  so  much  as  in  the 
presence  of  the  objects  described.  To  express  the  antithesis  briefly ;  they 
presented  the  thing,  we  usually  present  the  effect;  they  described  the 
dreadful,  we  describe  dreadfully;  they  the  agreeable,  we  agreeably,  and 
so  on.  This  will  explain  all  our  extravagance,  our  affectation,  our  false 
grace,  our  inflation;  for  once  you  elaborate  and  strain  after  effect,  you 
fancy  you  can  never  make  it  strong  enough." 

— Goethe,  Travels  in  Italy,  p.  322. 

"In  instruments,  the  primal  organs  of  creation  and  nature  find  their 
representation;  they  cannot  be  sharply  determined  and  defined,  for 
they  but  repeat  primal  feelings  as  they  came  forth  from  the  chaos  of 
the  first  creation,  when  there  were  perhaps  no  human  beings  in  exist- 
ence to  receive  them  in  their  hearts.  With  the  genius  of  the  human 
voice  it  is  entirely  otherwise;  this  represents  the  human  heart,  and  its 
isolated,  individual  emotion.  Its  character  is  therefore  limited,  but 
fixed  and  defined.  Let  these  two  elements  be  brought  together,  then; 
let  them  be  united!  Let  those  wild  primal  emotions  that  stretch  out 
into  the  infinite,  that  are  represented  by  instruments,  be  contrasted 
with  the  clear,  definite  emotions  of  the  human  heart,  represented  by  the 
human  voice.  The  addition  of  the  second  element  will  work  benefi- 
cently and  soothingly  upon  the  conflict  of  the  elemental  emotions,  and 
give  to  their  course  a  well-defined  and  united  channel ;  and  the  human 
heart  itself,  in  receiving  these  elemental  emotions,  will  be  immeasurably 
strengthened  and  broadened ;  and  made  capable  of  feeling  clearly  what 
was  before  an  uncertain  presage  of  the  highest  ideal,  now  changed  into 
a  divine  knowledge." 

— Wagner,  in  "A  Pilgrimage  to  Beethoven,"  Art  Life  and  Theories, 
p.  63. 

"I  admit  that  the  exercises  of  the  gymnasium  form  athletic  bodies; 
but  beauty  is  only  developed  by  the  free  and  equal  play  of  the  limbs. 
In  the  same  way  the  tension  of  the  isolated  spiritual  forces  may  make 
extraordinary  men;  but  it  is  only  the  well-tempered  equilibrium  of 
these  forces  that  can  produce  happy  and  accomplished  men." 

— Schiller,  Essays  M&tlnetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  43. 

"The  highest  problem  of  any  art  is  to  produce  by  appearance  the 
illusion  of  a  higher  reality.  But  it  is  a  false  endeavour  to  realize  the 
appearance  until  at  last  only  something  commonly  real  remains." 

— Goethe,  Autobiography,  Bohn  Library  translation  (George  Bell  & 
Sons,  London,  1891),  vol.  1,  p.  422. 

TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  likenesses  can  you  discover  between  poetry  on  the  one  hand 
and  sculpture  and  painting  on  the  other? 
38 


2.  What  likenesses  can  you  discover  between  poetry  and  music? 

3.  What  poets  make  the  strongest  appeal  through  imaginative  vision? 

What  poets  make  the  dominant  appeal  through  music? 

4.  Compare  what  is  given  in  Shakespeare's  sonnet  beginning  "That 

time  of  year  thou  mayst  in  me  behold"  with  a  painting  of  an 
autumn  scene. 

5.  Compare  Shelley's  lyric  To  the  Night  with  the  music  of  Chopin. 

6.  Study  carefully  what  is  given  in  Millet's  Man  with  the  Hoe  with  what 

is  given  in  Markham's  poem  on  the  same  subject. 

7.  Estimate  the  value  and  limitations  of  Lessing's  theory  of  the  arts 

as  given  in  Laokoon. 

8.  What  elements  of  content  and  of  form  are  common  to  all  the  arts? 

9.  Compare  in  expression  of  thought,  feeling  and  imagination  and  in 

type  of  appeal,  the  Divine  Comedy  of  Dante,  the  Last  Judgment  of 
Michael  Angelo  and  the  Ninth  Symphony  of  Beethoven. 
10.  What  powers  has  poetry  that  are  not  present  in  the  other  arts? 

REFERENCES 

Ambros,  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry.  Aristotle,  Poetic.  Beeching, 
The  Study  of  Poetry.  Bradley,  Poetry  for  Poetry's  Sake.  Corson,  Aims  of 
Literary  Study.  Dabney,  Musical  Basis  of  Verse.  Goethe,  Conversations 
with  Eckermann;  Maxims  and  Reflections.  Gummere,  The  Beginnings  of 
Poetry;  Handbook  of  Poetics.  Gurney,  The  Power  of  Sound.  Holden, 
Audiences.  Holmes,  What  is  Poetry?  Hugo,  William  Shakespeare. 
Knight,  The  Philosophy  of  the  Beautiful.  Lanier,  Music  and  Poetry; 
Science  of  English  Verse.  Lessing,  Laokoon.  Moyse,  Poetry  as  a  Fine 
Art.  Newman,  Poetry,  with  Reference  to  Aristotle's  Poetics.  Palgrave, 
Golden  Treasury;  Poetry  Compared  with  the  Other  Fine  Arts.  Plato, 
Republic,  books  II.  and  III.  Poe,  The  Rationale  of  Verse  and  The  Poetic 
Principle.  Puffer,  The  Psychology  of  Beauty,  chapters  vi.-viii.  Ray- 
mond, Poetry  as  a  Representative  Art;  Rhythm  and  Harmony  in  Poetry 
and  Music.  Santayana,  Elements  and  Function  of  Poetry.  Schiller, 
Essays.  Shairp,  Aspects  of  Poetry.  Shelley,  A  Defence  of  Poetry.  Sidney, 
Defense  of  Poesy.  Stedman,  Nature  and  Elements  of  Poetry.  Wagner,  Art 
Life  and  Theories  of.  Wilde,  The  Critic  as  Artist.  Winchester,  Some 
Principles  of  Literary  Criticism. 


VII.  LITERATURE  AND  LIBERAL  CULTURE 

"It  is  precisely  minds  of  the  first  order  that  will  never  be  specialists. 
For  their  very  nature  is  to  make  the  whole  of  existence  their  problem ; 
and  this1  is  a  subject  upon  which  they  will  every  one  of  them  in  some 
form  provide  mankind  with  a  new  revelation." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  55. 

Significance  of  poetry  for  education. — Each  art  supreme  in  its  own 
field  and  function.  Thus  impossibility  of  classing  one  as  highest.  Of 
them  all,  poetry  the  most  universal  in  function,  combining  in  one  some- 
thing of  each  of  the  great  types  of  art,  and  broadest  in  power  to  express 
and  interpret  human  life.  Permanence  of  poetry.  Accessibility  of 
poetry  as  contrasted  with  the  other  arts.  Thus  whatever  art  appeals 
most  powerfully  to  the  individual,  poetry  having  a  place  in  the  educa- 
tion of  all.  Hence  reason  for  choosing  this  art  for  separate  discussion. 

What  is  literature? — Relation  of  poetry  to  other  forms  of  literature. 
Two-fold  distinction  of  artistic  literature  from  other  writing :  Require- 
ment that  it  should  be  human  in  appeal,  written  for  the  man  and  not 
the  specialist,  and  that  it  should  be  adequate  and  harmonious  in  expres- 
sion. The  vast  field  comprised  within  these  limits. 

The  study  of  literature. — Literature  many  things  to  many  men.  Thus 
studied  for  a  multitude  of  special  purposes.  Compare  the  use  of  litera- 
ture as  a  mere  text-book  for  philology,  or  as  an  opportunity  for  ex- 
pounding a  particular  philosophy.  Frequent  misuse  of  literature  in 
education. 

The  great  value  of  literature,  not  in  contributing  to  some  phase  of 
special  training,  but  in  developing  liberal  culture.  What  such  culture 
means  in  the  development  of  intellect,  emotions  and  imagination. 

The  reasons  for  the  vast  development  of  specialization  in  our  educa- 
tion recently.  Need  that  special  training  should  rest  always  on  a  basis 
of  liberal  culture.  Thus  the  significance  of  the  study  of  literature  as 
the  art  most  broadly  expressing  human  life,  and  thus  contributing  to 
the  liberal  cultivation  of  the  man  as  compared  with  the  training  of  the 
specialist. 

The  four  avenues  of  approach. — Literature  possessing  a  soul  of 
thought,  feeling  and  imagination  and  a  body  of  artistic  expression, 

40 


Compare  how  all  true  art  must  be  both  significant  and  beautiful.  Thus 
two  great  aspects  of  literature:  possible  to  focus  attention  on  either  one. 
Which  appeals  more  powerfully  to  the  student  as  somewhat  a  matter 
of  temperament. 

Content  and  form  studied  directly  with  the  aim  of  understanding 
significance  and  appreciating  beauty;  both  aspects  of  literature  studied 
as  embodying  historical  forces.  Thus  the  four  aspects  of  the  study  of 
literature,  with  the  aim  of  liberal  culture. 

The  direct  study  of  the  content  of  literature. — The  range  of  thought 
given  in  literature.  The  problems  constantly  treated.  Thought  never 
expressed  alone  in  literature,  but  always  transfused  with  feeling  and 
transfigured  with  imagination.  Thus  the  appeal  to  the  whole  man. 
Resulting  education  and  its  value.  Compare  in  developing  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beauty  and  sublimity  of  Nature,  of  the  dignity,  comedy  and 
tragedy  of  human  life.  Illustrations  in  the  poetry  of  the  sunset  hour; 
in  the  poetry  of  human  experience. 

The  second  avenue  of  approach. — The  soul  of  literature  given  a  fur- 
ther meaning  when  studied  in  relation  to  the  forces  behind  it.  Expres- 
sion of  the  character  of  the  artist  in  his  work:  Compare  Milton  in  Para- 
dise Lost;  Carlyle  in  Sartor  Resartus.  Embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  the 
epoch  and  race  in  literature.  Deeper  expression  of  what  is  common  to 
humanity  in  all  time:  Compare  the  Antigone  of  Sophocles. 

The  study  of  literary  art. — The  analytical  study  of  form  in  literature 
as  only  a  means  to  an  end — the  end  of  synthetic  appreciation.  The 
need  always  to  find  the  relation  of  the  body  of  art  to  the  soul  of  thought, 
feeling  and  imagination  expressed  through  it. 

No  accidents  in  art.  The  melody  of  a  line  or  word  always  determined 
by  law,  whether  or  not  the  poet  was  conscious  of  the  law.  Possible  thus 
for  the  student  to  discover  the  laws  the  art  follows.  Illustration  of 
these  in  the  succession  of  poetic  forms  from  common  speech  to  the  most 
highly  differentiated  stanzas.  The  aim  of  art  never  merely  to  create 
the  sensuously  pleasing,  but  to  give  adequate  and  harmonious  expres- 
sion. 

The  fourth  avenue  of  approach. — The  body  of  literature  as  much  as 
the  soul  an  expression  of  historical  forces.  Evidgnce  in  the  contrasting 
imagery  of  Shelley  and  Wordsworth.  The  Elizabethan  age  naturally 
creating  the  drama,  modern  life  the  lyric.  Expression  of  racial  char- 
acteristics in  the  music  of  words  and  the  stanzas  of  poetry.  Contrast 
Beowulf  and  the  Iliad. 

The  culture  given  by  literature. — Type  of  education  resulting  from  all 
four  lines  of  the  study  of  literature.  The  widened  relation  to  man  and 
Nature.  The  true  cosmopolitanism  of  the  spirit.  Thus  the  service  of 

41 


literature  in  making  possible  the  discovery  of  the  divine  in  the  common- 
place and  of  the  ideal  in  the  real. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"To  use  many  words  to  communicate  few  thoughts  is  everywhere 
the  unmistakable  sign  of  mediocrity.  To  gather  much  thought  into 
few  words  stamps  the  man  of  genius." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  30. 

"  We  know  that  the  sensibility  of  the  mind  depends,  as  to  degree,  on 
the  liveliness,  and  for  extent  on  the  richness,  of  the  imagination.  Now 
the  predominance  of  the  faculty  of  analysis  must  necessarily  deprive 
the  imagination  of  its  warmth  and  energy,  and  a  restricted  sphere  of 
objects  must  diminish  its  wealth.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  abstract 
thinker  has  very  often  a  cold  heart,  because  he  analyses  impressions, 
which  only  move  the  mind  by  their  combination  or  totality;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  man  of  business,  the  statesman,  has  very  often  a  narrow 
heart,  because  shut  up  in  the  narrow  circle  of  his  employment  his  imagi- 
nation can  neither  expand  nor  adapt  itself  to  another  manner  of  viewing 
things." 

— Schiller,  Essays  dEsthetical  and  Philosophical,  pp.  41,  42. 

"One  should  not  study  contemporaries  and  competitors,  but  the 
great  men  of  antiquity,  whose  works  have,  for  centuries,  received  equal 
homage  and  consideration.  Indeed,  a  man  of  really  superior  endow- 
ments will  feel  the  necessity  of  this,  and  it  is  just  this  need  for  an  inter- 
course with  great  predecessors,  which  is  the  sign  of  a  higher  talent.  Let 
us  study  Moliere,  let  us  study  Shakespeare,  but  above  all  things,  the 
old  Greeks,  and  always  the  Greeks." 

— Goethe,  Conversations  with  Eckermann  and  Soret,  p.  236. 

"There  is  a  fine  art  of  passion,  but  an  impassioned  fine  art  is  a  con- 
tradiction in  terms,  for  the  infallible  effect  of  the  beautiful  is  emancipa- 
tion from  the  passions.  The  idea  of  an  instructive  fine  art  (didactic 
art)  or  improving  (moral)  art  is  no  less  contradictory,  for  nothing  agrees 
less  with  the  idea  of  the  beautiful  than  to  give  a  determinate  tendency 
to  the  mind." 

— Schiller,  Essays  dSsthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  92. 

"To  read  a  philosopher's  biography,  instead  of  studying  his  thoughts, 
is  like  neglecting  a  picture  and  attending  only  to  the  style  of  its  frame, 
debating  whether  it  is  carved  well  or  ill,  and  how  much  it  cost  to  gild  it." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  146. 

"Any  one  who  is  sufficiently  young,  and  who  is  not  quite  spoiled, 
could  not  easily  find  any  place  that  would  suit  him  so  well  as  a  theatre. 
No  one  asks  you  any  questions:  you  need  not  open  your  mouth  unless 
you  choose;  on  the  contrary,  you  sit  quite  at  your  ease  like  a  king,  and 
let  everything  pass  before  you,  and  recreate  your  mind  and  senses  to 

42 


your  heart's  Content.  There  is  poetry,  there  is  painting,  there  are  sing- 
ing and  music,  there  is  acting,  and  what  not  besides.  When  all  these 
arts,  and  the  charm  of  youth  and  beauty  heightened  to  an  important 
degree,  work  in  concert  on  the  same  evening,  it  is  a  bouquet  to  which  no 
other  can  compare." 
— Goethe,  Conversations  with  Eckermann  and  Soret,  p.  120. 

"It  is  therefore  not  going  far  enough  to  say  that  the  light  of  the 
understanding  only  deserves  respect  when  it  reacts  on  the  character; 
to  a  certain  extent  it  is  from  the  character  that  this  light  proceeds;  for 
the  road  that  terminates  in  the  head  must  pass  through  the  heart.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  most  pressing  need  of  the  present  time  is  to  educate  the 
sensibility,  because  it  is  the  means,  not  only  to  render  efficacious  in  prac- 
tice the  improvement  of  ideas,  but  to  call  this  improvement  into  exist- 
ence." 

— Schiller,  Essays  JEsthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  48. 

"  A  pupil  from  whom  nothing  is  ever  demanded  which  he  cannot  do, 
never  does  all  he  can." 

— John  Stuart  Mill,  Autobiography  (Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  New  York, 
1887),  p.  32. 


TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  Define  artistic  literature  as  distinguished  from  other  writings. 

2.  What   characteristics   give    literature   an  exceptional    place   and 

value  as  a  means  of  liberal  culture? 

3.  What  education  results  from  the  study  of  thought,  feeling  and  im- 

agination in  literature? 

4.  Why  is  the  poetry  of  sorrow  filled  with  the  imagery  of  the  sea? 

5.  Is  there  a  "pathetic  fallacy"  involved  in  using  Nature  as  a  lan- 

guage for  the  expression  of  human  emotions? 

6.  What  place  has  the  education  of  the  emotions  and  the  imagination 

in  relation  to  the  whole  of  culture? 

7.  Study  the  imagery  of  Shelley  and  Wordsworth  as  expressing  the 

character  of  the  two  poets. 

8.  What  is  the  cultural  value  of  the  analytical  study  of  literary  style? 

9.  Why  was  Elizabethan  poetry  characteristically  dramatic,  where 

modern  English  poetry  is  predominantly  lyrical? 
10.  What  aspects  of  the  study  of  literature  are  most  important  for 
liberal  culture,  and  why? 

REFERENCES 

Arnold,  The  Study  of  Poetry.   Baldwin,  The  Book-Lover.   Bates,  Talks 
on  the  Study  of  Literature.    Beeching,  The  Study  of  Poetry.    Collins,  TJie 

43 


True  Functions  of  Poetry.  Corson,  Aims  of  Literary  Study.  Crawshaw, 
The  Interpretation  of  Literature;  Literary  Interpretation  of  Life.  Dabney, 
Musical  Basis  of  Verse.  Hamerton,  The  Intellectual  Life.  Hugo,  William 
Shakespeare.  Lewes,  Principles  of  Success  in  Literature.  Mabie,  Books 
and  Culture.  Mathews,  Music:  Its  Ideals  and  Methods.  Morison,  The 
Great  Poets  as  Religious  Teachers.  Newman,  Poetry,  with  Reference  to 
Aristotle's  Poetics.  Palgrave,  Golden  Treasury.  Pryde,  Highways  of 
Literature.  Santayana,  Elements  and  Function  of  Poetry.  Schiller, 
Essays.  Shairp,  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Nature.  Sidney,  Defense  of 
Poesy.  Stedman,  Nature  and  Elements  of  Poetry.  Warner,  The  Relation 
of  Literature  to  Life.  Winchester,  Some  Principles  of  Literary  Criticism. 


44 


VIII.   BEAUTY  AND  THE  CULTURE  OF 
THE  SPIRIT 

"  It  is  important,  at  the  present  time,  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  human 
soul  has  still  greater  need  of  the  ideal  than  of  the  real. 

It  is  by  the  real  that  we  exist;  it  is  by  the  ideal  that  we  live.  Would 
you  realize  the  difference?  Animals  exist,  man  lives." 

— Victor  Hugo,  William  Shakespeare,  p.  295. 

The  life  of  appreciation. — Art  appealing  to  the  whole  man — intellect, 
emotion,  imagination.  Hence  difficulty  in  endeavoring  to  put  the 
meaning  of  art  into  terms  of  the  intellect.  How  we  appreciate  much 
that  we  never  understand.  The  joy  of  life  depending  largely  on  appre- 
ciation. Compare  how  life  is  always  in  advance  of  the  theory  of  life. 
The  three  aspects  of  the  life  of  appreciation:  beauty,  love,  faith.  The 
sense  in  which  wisdom  also  belongs  to  appreciation. 

Contrasting  significance  of  art  and  philosophy.  The  reason  for  the 
permanent  value  of  every  great  work  of  art.  The  test  of  an  artistic 
masterpiece  its  power  to  grow  with  our  growth,  revealing  new  deeps  as 
we  bring  the  key  of  enlarged  experience  to  its  interpretation. 

The  nature  of  beauty. — The  fact  that  beauty  belongs  to  the  life  of 
appreciation  as  explaining  the  difficulty  in  defining  beauty.  Possible 
to  define  the  relations  upon  which  beauty  depends  rather  than  beauty 
itself. 

The  relation  of  habit  and  custom  in  the  appreciation  of  beauty.  Evi- 
dence of  a  conventional  element  in  changes  of  taste  and  standard  in 
reference  both  to  Nature  and  the  arts. 

The  relation  of  the  parts  to  the  whole  in  Nature  or  art ;  and  the  rela- 
tion of  an  organism  or  a  thing  made  to  the  function  it  is  to  fulfil.  Con- 
trast deformity  and  beauty.  The  sublimity  of  a  great  machine. 

The  deeper  relation  of  body  to  soul,  of  form  to  content,  as  a  determin- 
ing principle  of  beauty.  Beauty  depending  less  upon  what  is  sensu- 
ously pleasing,  than  upon  adequate  and  harmonious  expression,  the 
perfect  marrying  of  body  and  soul. 

Still  deeper  relation  behind  all  appreciation  of  beauty.  The  rhythm 
or  harmony  that  inevitably  exists  between  man's  sensibilities  and  the 
Nature-world  in  relation  to  which  these  senses  have  been  evolved. 

45 


Since  all  forms  utilized  in  the  arts  are  drawn  finally  from  Nature,  this 
principle  behind  all  appreciation  of  beauty  in  the  arts  as  well  as  in 
Nature. 

Unity  of  the  life  of  appreciation.  Hence  all  cultivation  of  the  true 
response  to  beauty  deepening  and  refining  the  life  of  love  and  of  re- 
ligion. 

Nature  and  art. — The  two  worlds  of  beauty;  each  possessing  its  own 
superiority.  Identity  of  form  and  content  in  the  beauty  of  Nature; 
living  and  everchanging  character  of  Nature.  Hence  the  healing,  rest- 
ing and  exalting  power  of  Nature  in  ministering  to  the  spirit  of  man. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  soul  in  Nature  dumb  and  brooding;  carried  to 
clear  and  conscious  expression  through  human  art.  Art  as  Nature  and 
life  put  through  the  spectrum  of  man's  mind  and  heart.  Compare  a 
Corot  painting  with  a  bit  of  Nature ;  a  portrait  by  Titian  or  Rembrandt 
with  a  human  face.  Thus  the  ministration  of  art  to  the  human  spirit: 
in  calming  and  exalting;  in  giving  widened  relation  to  Nature  and  life, 
developing  power  to  see;  in  inspiring  action. 

Opportunities  for  the  appreciation  of  beauty. — The  wealth  of  natural 
beauty  poured  out  abundantly  on  every  hand.  Tendency  to  ignore  or 
fail  to  see  the  beauty  of  Nature  just  because  it  is  so  universal  and 
accessible.  Need  to  put  oneself  in  the  way  of  beauty;  to  leave  room 
for  the  heaven  of  the  unexpected. 

If  the  beauty  of  art  is  less  accessible,  nevertheless  far  more  than  is 
utilized  and  enjoyed.  Compare  in  poetry,  painting,  music.  The  cur- 
rent attitude  toward  museums  of  art  and  opportunities  in  music. 

The  conscious  study  of  beauty. — Not  enough  to  give  oneself  oppor- 
tunities for  enjoying  beauty.  Compare  the  people  who  live  close  to 
Nature  without  seeing  her  beauty;  who  wander  aimlessly  through  art 
galleries  and  sit  unappreciatively  through  an  evening  of  great  music 
because  it  is  the  fashion.  Need  of  conscious  study  of  beauty  as  a  means 
toward  appreciation. 

The  method  of  the  conscious  study  of  beauty  in  Nature  and  the  arts. 
Need  to  isolate  and  analyze.  The  ways  by  which  one  may  escape  con- 
vention and  react  freshly  on  the  appeal  of  beauty.  The  active  question- 
ing which  the  student  should  employ.  The  deepened  conscious  appre- 
ciation which  results  from  such  study.  The  greater  value  of  a  little  of 
such  direct  and  active  study  over  much  reading  of  art  criticism  and 
theory. 

Some  expression  necessary  to  complete  such  study.  Various  forms 
that  may  be  employed.  The  value  of  keeping  a  book  of  reflections  in 
which  to  formulate  and  record  one's  study  and  appreciation. 

The  value  of  art  for  the  artist. — The  ministry  of  beauty  fulfilled  in 

46 


the  supreme  way  for  the  creative  artist.  Clarifying  and  exalting  influ- 
ence of  art  upon  the  artist.  Development  in  him  of  power  to  see  and 
to  achieve.  Illustrations  in  great  masters  such  as  Michael  Angelo  and 
Dante.  Thus  for  the  artist  supremely  as  for  the  student  in  lesser 
degree,  art  for  life's  sake. 

Art  and  daily  life. — Need  that  each  human  being  should  be  an  artist: 
this  possible  in  the  supreme  art  of  living.  Thus  need  to  identify  beauty 
and  use:  to  make  one's  vocation,  one's  environment,  one's  relationships 
art  in  the  highest  sense.  How  then  every  part  and  aspect  of  life  would 
be  the  adequate  and  harmonious  expression  and  interpretation  of  some 
phase  of  man's  life  and  experience  in  true  relation  to  the  whole. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Supreme  Art  is  the  region  of  Equals.     There  is  no  primacy  among 
masterpieces." 
— Victor  Hugo,  William  Shakespeare,  p.  40. 

"The  technical  work  of  our  time,  which  is  done  to  an  unprecedented 
perfection,  has,  by  increasing  and  multiplying  objects  of  luxury,  given 
the  favourites  of  fortune  a  choice  between  more  leisure  and  culture  upon 
the  one  side,  and  additional  luxury  and  good  living,  but  with  increased 
activity,  upon  the  other;  and,  true  to  their  character,  they  choose  the 
latter,  and  prefer  champagne  to  freedom." 

— Schopenhauer,  The  Art  of  Literature,  p.  141. 

"The  capacity  of  the  sublime  is  one  of  the  noblest  aptitudes  of  man. 
Beauty  is  useful,  but  does  not  go  beyond  man.  The  sublime  applies  to 
the  pure  spirit.  The  sublime  must  be  joined  to  the  beautiful  to  com- 
plete the  aesthetic  education,  and  to  enlarge  man's  heart  beyond  the 
sensuous  world." 

— Schiller,  Essays  sEsthetical  and  Philosophical,  p.  141. 

"Let  us  remember  the  prompter,  very  delicately  and  genially  drawn 
by  Goethe  in  a  few  touches,  who  is  so  much  moved  at  certain  places  that 
he  weeps  hot  tears ;  yet  '  it  is,  strictly  speaking,  not  the  so-called  moving 
places  that  affect  him  so,  but  the  beautiful  places  from  which  the  pure 
genius  of  the  poet,  so  to  speak,  looks  out  from  bright,  open  eyes.'  In  the 
case  of  persons  of  a  predominantly  tender,  ardent  disposition  we  not 
seldom  meet  this  phenomenon.  A  beautiful  po6m,  a  sublime  scene  in 
nature — nay,  the  narration  of  a  good  deed,  moves  them  to  tears.  And 
history  tells  us  of  the  noble  Saladin,  who  was  a  warlike  hero,  that  the 
narration  of  great  deeds  and  simple  touching  occurrences  often  moved 
him  also  to  tears.  It  can  hardly  be  assumed  that  a  warlike  hero  is  the 
possessor  of  weak  nerves.  What  have  these  grayish-white  threads  to 
do  at  all  with  the  eternal  ideas  of  the  Good  and  the  Beautiful?  The 
emotion  of  which  we  have  just  spoken  is  something  better  than  mere 

47 


nervous  irritation ;  it  is  a  higher  kind  of  homesickness,  which  attacks  us 
when  the  ideas  of  the  Good  and  the  Beautiful  suddenly  appear  before  us 
and  remind  us  of  our  eternal  home." 

— Ambroa,  The  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry,  pp.  42,  43. 

"We  leave  a  grand  musical  performance  with  our  feelings  excited, 
the  reading  of  a  noble  poem  with  a  quickened  imagination,  a  beautiful 
statue  or  building  with  an  awakened  understanding;  but  a  man  would 
not  choose  an  opportune  moment  who  attempted  to  invite  us  to  abstract 
thinking  after  a  high  musical  enjoyment,  or  to  attend  to  a  prosaic  affair 
of  common  life  after  a  high  poetical  enjoyment,  or  to  kindle  our  imagina- 
tion and  astonish  our  feelings  directly  after  inspecting  a  fine  statue  or 
edifice.  The  reason  of  this  is,  that  music,  by  its  matter,  even  when  most 
spiritual,  presents  a  greater  affinity  with  the  senses  than  is  permitted  by 
aesthetic  liberty;  it  is  because  even  the  most  happy  poetry,  having  for 
its  medium  the  arbitrary  and  contingent  play  of  the  imagination,  always 
shares  in  it  more  than  the  intimate  necessity  of  the  really  beautiful 
allows;  it  is  because  the  best  sculpture  touches  on  severe  science  by  what 
is  determinate  in  its  conception.  However,  these  particular  affinities  are 
lost  in  proportion  as  the  works  of  these  three  kinds  of  art  rise  to  a  greater 
elevation,  and  it  is  a  natural  and  necessary  consequence  of  their  per- 
fection, that,  without  confounding  their  objective  limits,  the  different 
arts  come  to  resemble  each  other  more  and  more,  in  the  action  which 
they  exercise  on  the  mind.  At  its  highest  degree  of  ennobling,  music  ought 
to  become  a  form,  and  act  on  us  with  the  calm  power  of  an  antique 
statue;  in  its  most  elevated  perfection,  the  plastic  art  ought  to  become 
music  and  move  us  by  the  immediate  action  exercised  on  the  mind  by 
the  senses;  in  its  most  complete  development,  poetry  ought  both  to  stir 
us  powerfully  like  music  and  like  plastic  art  to  surround  us  with  a  peace- 
ful light.  In  each  art,  the  perfect  style  consists  exactly  in  knowing 
how  to  remove  specific  limits,  while  sacrificing  at  the  same  time  the  par- 
ticular advantages  of  the  art,  and  to  give  it  by  a  wise  use  of  what  be- 
longs to  it  specially  a  more  general  character." 

— Schiller,  Essays  JEsthetical  and  Philosophical,  pp.  90,  91. 

"When  a  beautiful  soul  harmonizes  with  a  beautiful  form,  and  the  two 
are  cast  in  one  mold,  that  will  be  the  fairest  of  sights  to  him  who  has  an 
eye  to  see  it." 

— Plato,  Republic,  book  III,  section  402. 

"The  amphora  which  refuses  to  go  to  the  fountain  deserves  the  hisses 
of  the  water-pots." 

— Victor  Hugo,  William  Shakespeare,  p.  319. 

"  The  true  artist  has  no  pride ;  unhappily  he  realizes  that  art  has  no 
limitations,  he  feels  darkly  how  far  he  is  from  the  goal,  and  while  per- 
haps he  is  admired  by  others,  he  grieves  that  he  has  not  yet  reached  the 
point  where  the  better  genius  shall  shine  before  him  like  a  distant  sun." 

— Beethoven,  in  Kerst,  Beethoven:  The  Man  and  the  Artist,  p.  49. 

48 


TOPICS  FOR  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  Define  the  respective  functions  of  art  and  philosophy  in  relation  to 

the  human  spirit. 

2.  Compare  in  significance  and  relative  value,  beauty  in  Nature  and  in 

human  art. 

3.  Can  beauty  exist  without  definite  and  limited  form? 

4.  What  does  creative  expression  in  art  do  for  the  artist? 

5.  Is  it  possible  to  define  beauty  satisfactorily? 

6.  Sum  up  all  the  elements  and  relations  involved  in  the  appreciation 

of  beauty. 

7.  What  end  and  aim  is  evident  in  the  creation  of  all  great  art? 

8.  In  what  ways  does  the  beauty  of  Nature  and  of  art  minister  to  the 

spirit  of  man? 

9.  What  should  be  the  relation  of  art  to  daily  life? 
10.  How  can  life  be  made  a  fine  art? 


REFERENCES 

Carpenter,  Angels'  Wings.  Dwight,  Intellectual  Influence  of  Music; 
Music  as  a  Means  of  Culture.  Eastman,  Musical  Education  and  Musical 
Art.  Emerson,  Art  (in  Essays,  first  series,  pp.  325-343);  Art  (in  Society 
and  Solitude,  pp.  39-59).  Gurney,  The  Power  of  Sound.  Hamerton,  The 
Intellectual  Life.  Hand,  Esthetics  of  Musical  Art.  Hanslick,  The  Beauti- 
ful in  Music.  Hegel,  Introduction  to  the  Philosophy  of  Fine  Art.  Holden, 
Audiences.  Lanier,  Music  and  Poetry.  Mabie,  Nature  and  Culture.  Mor- 
ris, Hopes  and  Fears  for  Art.  Parry,  The  Ministry  of  Fine  Art  to  the  Hap- 
piness of  Life.  Partridge,  Art  for  America.  Plato,  Republic,  books  II.  and 
III.  Puffer,  The  Psychology  of  Beauty.  Raymond,  Essentials  of  Es- 
thetics. Schiller,  Essays.  Surette  and  Mason,  The  Appreciation  of  Music. 
Tolstoy,  What  is  Art?  Wagner,  Art  Life  and  Theories  of. 


49 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  STUDENTS 

"  You  do  ill  if  you  praise,  but  worse  if  you  censure,  what  you  do  not 
rightly  understand." 

— Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Note-Books,  arranged  by 
Edward  McCurdy,  p.  58. 

Dealing,  as  this  course  does,  with  the  material  of  four  great  arts,  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  work  the  student  may  do  in  connection  with  it.  The 
most  significant  point  is  to  recognize  that  a  little  first-hand  study  of 
works  of  art  is  worth  more  than  a  vast  amount  of  reading  of  criticism 
and  theory  of  art.  The  best  preparation  for  the  course  is  to  select  a 
few  works  of  art  in  each  of  the  four  fields  and  study  them  carefully; 
analyzing  rigorously  the  effect  each  produces  on  the  student's  senses, 
emotions  and  intellect;  seeking  to  discover  the  means  by  which  that 
effect  is  produced;  and  endeavoring  to  define  what  part  or  aspect  of 
man's  life  and  reaction  on  Nature  finds  expression  and  interpretation 
in  each  artistic  creation  studied.  The  student  must  formulate  his  own 
questioning  and  worjc  with  a  mind  consistently  active,  not  passive. 

This  is  merely  demanding  in  the  field  of  the  arts  the  same  direct  in- 
ductive study  of  the  material  given,  that  is  universally  recognized  to- 
day as  the  only  sound  method  in  every  field  of  science.  It  is  surprising 
how  a  little  of  such  study  will  clarify  the  field  of  art.  Works  drop 
quickly  into  place,  each  is  understood  in  relation  to  others  and  to  the 
common  background  of  human  experience  in  both  significance  and 
beauty.  This  intellectual  result  is,  however,  not  all;  indeed,  it  is  the 
less  important  consequence  of  the  work.  The  great  gain  is  in  deepened 
appreciation.  The  student  turns  to  fresh  works  of  art  with  a  multiplied 
power  to  respond  to  the  appeal  of  each  masterpiece.  Thus  is  his  life 
widened  and  deepened  in  relation  to  man  and  Nature,  and  blessed  with 
the  joy  that  beauty  gives. 

The  reading  of  such  books  as  are  given  in  the  following  list  should  be 
subordinated  to  the  work  above  outlined,  and  should  be  used  to  clarify 
and  stimulate  the  student's  own  thinking,  following  the  direct  study  of 
the  works  of  art  themselves. 

The  material  in  Palgrave's  Golden  Treasury  of  Songs  and  Lyrics,  giv- 
ing as  it  does  brief  but  complete  works  of  art  selected  from  widely 
different  men  and  epochs  should  be  used  throughout  the  course  to 
represent  the  art  of  poetry.  Where  a  gallery  of  painting  and  sculpture 
is  not  accessible  to  the  student,  photographic  reproductions  (obtainable 
to-day  at  insignificant  price)  of  the  works  mentioned  in  the  outlines 
and  lists  of  topics  should  be  obtained  and  carefully  studied.  In  music 
the  student  should  utilize  with  loving  care  such  opportunities  as  he  can 
find  or  make  available. 

50 


BOOK    LIST 

Ambros,  Wilhelm  August,  The  Boundaries  of  Music  and  Poetry,  trans- 
lated by  J.  H.  Cornell.  Pp.  xiii  + 187.  G.  Schirmer,  New  York,  1893. 

Anderson,  Rasmus  B.,  Norse  Mythology.  Pp.  473.  S.  C.  Griggs  &  Co., 
Chicago,  1875. 

Anderson,  Rasmus  B.  (translator),  The  Younger  Edda.  Pp.  302.  S.  C. 
Griggs  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1880. 

Aristotle,  The  Poetic,  translated  by  Theodore  Buckley,  pp.  405-500  in 
volume  with  Aristotle's  Rhetoric.  Bohn  Library,  George  Bell  &  Sons, 
London,  1890. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  The  Study  of  Poetry,  pp.  1-55  in  Essays  in  Criticism, 
second  series.  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1906. 

Baldwin,  James,  The  Book-Lover.  Pp.  201.  Jansen,  McClurg  &  Co., 
Chicago,  1885. 

Bascom,  John,  Philosophy  of  English  Literature.  Pp.  xii  +  318.  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  New  York,  1886. 

Bates,  Arlo,  Talks  on  the  Study  of  Literature.  Pp.  260.  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1898. 

Beeching,  H.  C.,  The  Study  of  Poetry.  Pp.  57.  University  Press,  Cam- 
bridge, 1901. 

Bradley,  A.  C.,  Poetry  for  Poetry's  Sake.  Pp.  32.  Clarendon  Press, 
Oxford,  1901. 

Brown,  G.  Baldwin,  The  Fine  Arts.  Pp.  xii  +  321.  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  New  York,  1906. 

Browning,  Robert,  Abt  Vogler;  With  Charles  Avison  (in  Parleyings  with 
Certain  People);  Master  Hugues  of  Saxe-Gotha;  Saul,  in  Works. 
Camberwell  edition,  T.  Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  New  York,  1898. 

Bulfinch,  Thomas,  The  Age  of  Chivalry.  Pp.  viii  +  414.  Crosby, 
Nichols  &  Co.,  Boston,  1859. 

Bulfinch,  Thomas,  The  Age  of  Fable,  edited  by  E.  E.  Hale.  New  edi- 
tion. Pp.  xxi  +  568.  S.  W.  Tilton  &  Co.,  Boston,  1894. 

Caffin,  Charles  H.,  How  to  Study  Pictures.  Pp.  xv  +  513.  The  Century 
Co.,  New  York,  1906. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  The  Hero  as  Divinity,  pp.  1-41  in  Heroes  and  Hero- 
Worship.  Centenary  edition.  Charles  ScribnePs  Sons,  New  York,  1897. 

Carpenter,  Edward,  Angels'  Wings:  A  Series  of  Essays  on  Art  and  Its 
Relation  to  Life.  Pp.  248.  Swan  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  London,  1898. 

Collins,  John  Churton,  The  True  Functions  of  Poetry,  pp.  263-291  in 
Studies  in  Poetry  and  Criticism.  George  Bell  &  Sons,  London,  1905. 

Corson,  Hiram,  The  Aims  of  Literary  Study.  Pp.  153.  The  Macmillan 
Co.,  New  York,  1895. 

51 


Cox,  George  W.,  An  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Comparative  Mythology 

and  Folk-Lore.     Pp.  xvi  +  380.     Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  New  York,  1881. 
Cox,  George  W.,   The  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations.     2  vols.,  pp. 

xx +460  and  xv  +  397.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  London,  1870. 
Crawshaw,  W.  H.,  The  Interpretation  of  Literature.     Pp.  x  +  235.     The 

Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 
Crawshaw,  W.  H.,  Literary  Interpretation  of  Life.     Pp.  viii  +  266.     The 

Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1900. 
Dabney,  J.  P.,  The  Musical  Basis  of  Verse.     Pp.  x+269.     Longmans, 

Green,  &  Co.,  London,  1901. 
Davies,  Henry  M.,  The  Musical  Consciousness.     (In  Music,  vol.  XII, 

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Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  Art,  pp.  325-343  in  Essays,  first  series.    Hough- 
ton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1883. 
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Reference  to  its  Influence  on  Literature.     Pp.  xvii  +  408.     D.  Appleton 

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London,  1901. 
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ders.     Pp.  223.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1893. 
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Co.,  Boston,  1885. 
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"  Strongly  optimistic,  and  yet  in  a  full  realization  of  the  blunders  and  faults  of 
art  and  the  social  system,  the  meditations  of  Mr.  Griggs  are  at  once  stimulating 
and  tonic  to  the  reader.  Devoid  of  pedantry  and  seldom  didactic,  sound  in 
truthful  estimatest  and  founded  upon  a  wholesome  love  of  life,  the  little  book  is 
infectiously  engaging." — Chicago  Tribune. 

The  Use  of  the  Margin 

(See  Advertisement  of  The  Art  of  Life  Series) 
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THE  ART  OF  LIFE  SERIES 

EDWARD  HOWARD  GRIGGS,  Editor 
VOLUMES  READY: 

The  Use  of  the  Margin 

By  EDWARD  HOWARD  GRIGGS 

In  this  work  the  author's  charm  as  a  public  speaker  is  transferred  to 
the  printed  page.  His  theme  is  the  problem  of  utilizing  the  time  one 
has  to  spend  as  one  pleases  for  the  aim  of  attaining  the  highest  culture 
of  mind  and  spirit.  How  to  work  and  how  to  play;  how  to  read  and 
how  to  study,  how  to  avoid  intellectual  dissipation  and  how  to  apply  the 
open  secrets  of  great  achievement  evidenced  in  conspicuous  lives  are 
among  the  many  phases  of  the  problem  which  the  author  discusses,  ear- 
nestly, yet  with  a  light  touch  and  not  without  humor. 

Things  Worth  While 

By  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 

He  discusses  in  an  intimate,  conversational  manner  various  prob- 
lems of  thinking  and  living  and  has  entered  fully  into  the  spirit  anima- 
ting the  publication  of  The  Art  of  Life  Series. 

Where  Knowledge  Fails 

By  EARL  BARNES 

From  the  pen  of  a  scientific  thinker,  one  whose  attitude  is  liberal 
yet  reverent,  presenting  the  outlines  of  a  belief  in  which  the  relations  of 
knowledge  and  faith  are  clearly  established. 

Self-Measurement 

A  Scale  of  Human  Values;  with  Directions  for 

Personal  Application 
By  WILLIAM  DE  WITT  HYDE 

He  reduces  life  to  its  fundamental  relations  showing  the  degrees  in 
which  each  may  be  fulfilled  or  nonfulfilled.  In  a  series  of  searching 
questions  he  directs  attention  to  every  human  activjty. 

OTHER  VOLUMES  IN  PREPARATION 
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